


Sapphire the Hedgehog (Sonic OC Story)

by CobaltGemini



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, sonic oc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26144920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltGemini/pseuds/CobaltGemini
Summary: Sapphire the Hedgehog is an amateur mechanic who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when she wins the chance to study under one of her heroes, Tails, and to meet Sonic himself. But she finds that she’s going to gain so much more than that.(Collection of short stories with my OC, but will soon have full story arcs)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. Introduction #1

"Thank you," Sapphire said to the airport clerk. Having picked up her luggage, she started making her way outside.

A slightly small mobian for her age, below average in height, Sapphire kept her yellow quills short, the two front ones on the sides with small split ends on them. Unlike most hedgehogs, she also had blonde hair framing the front of her face, bringing out her blue eyes. She wore a blue headband, sky-blue dress with a blue jacket on top, white gloves with blue, slightly transparent wrist rings, and blue and white sneakers.

As Sapphire made her way outside, she began to look around, searching for someone. She began to get nervous. She knew she had to look for a fox mobian with two tails. She turned to ask someone about it, when she heard, "hey! Are you Sapphire the Hedgehog?"

She turned around to see a yellow-orange fox mobian with two tails, sky blue eyes, and wearing white gloves with simple metal bands, and red and white shoes.

Sapphire was quiet for a moment, taking in who she was just meeting. Then she smiled and said, "You're really him. Tails! Mechanical genius! World savior! You... you... you..."

Tails smiled and held out his hand. "No need to give praise. Just a humble mechanic, like you."

Instead of shaking his hand, Sapphire pulled back a bit. "Uh, I... I-"

Tails raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay...?"

"Uh-uh, yes, sorry... I- I'm... a little shy," Sapphire replied meekly.

"A little," Tails replied. Then he gave a small laugh. "Hey, that's okay. Let's try this again." Tails stepped back. "I'm Miles Prower, but my friends call me Tails."

"I'm... I'm Sapphire. Sapphire... the Hedgehog?"

"Okay, pleased to meet you," and Tails held out his hand again, but raised it a bit slower this time.

Sapphire shyly gripped his hand, and Tails gave her a shake. "Nice to meet you, too," Sapphire replied.

"So, are you excited?" Tails asked. "You got a chance to learn with one best mechanics in the world. Um, not to brag." Tails rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh, yeah, this is... exciting. I'm just... really nervous."

"Hey, it's okay. You're already really good. The device you sent was amazing. I mean, you made a hardlight laser!"

"It was just made from scraps. I'm not as good as you think."

"Oh, come on. Don't underplay this. I'm yeah, you could work on your durability, and learn how to put shells to cover the 'inner workings'. But that's more than most amateurs can pull off. Where'd you get the crystals, anyway?"

"Oh, I found them by exploring the mountain cliffs near my home."

"Hm, cool. So congratulations on winning the contest, and becoming my protégé. I-" Tails stopped and looked at Sapphire, who was looked more nervous than before. "Um, let's skip all that formality for now. Let's just catch the train."

* * *

Tails led Sapphire out of the airport, and traveled to the closest train station, catching the next train.

Once they were off, Sapphire starred out her window.

"So are you new to city life?" Tails asked.

"Oh, um, no. Well, I'm new to this city. But I lived in a city before. I'm from the Blue Wave Islands," she responded.

"Oh, huh, cool. Where we're going, it might be a change of pace for you."

"Okay, then. So... where are we going?"

"Oh, my home and workshop are in the Mystic Ruins, outside of the city. I set up a room for, so you can stay with me."

"Huh, that's convenient, I guess."

Tails was quiet for a bit. "Is something wrong."

"It's just... this is all so new to me. I've never had an opportunity like this before. Not to mention... I've heard so much about you. And, um, Sonic, too."

"Are you a fan?"

"Y-yes. In fact, you inspired me. I became an engineer because of you. Which I guess means, I haven't been doing this long."

"Hey, that's okay. Though, may I ask. Why engineering? If you look up to me AND Sonic, why not adventuring? Going out to see the world?"

"Mostly because I'm not as fast as Sonic... or brave, really."

"I suppose that makes sense."

"But really, I've always wanted to be... smart, I guess. I like reading. Learning. And you're really smart. Following in your footsteps made sense to me."

"Oh, that's cool. Well, it's great to meet someone as smart as you, Sapphire."

Sapphire gave a soft smile. "Thank you."

"And you know, Sonic does hang out at my place a lot, so..."

Sapphire was stunned by this. She didn't think of that. A chance to Sonic the Hedgehog. The fastest thing in the world. The world's hero. THE Sonic.

Tails gave a small chuckle. "I guess that got you excited. Little extra bonus, I suppose."

"Yeah, I can't wait!" Then Sapphire paused. "B-but, I'm here primarily to learn from you. I don't want you to think-"

"Hey, it's okay," Tails replied, stopping Sapphire. He looked outside, and smiled. "We're here!"

Sapphire looked out herself. They just exited a tunnel, as the train began to slow down. Outside, she could see cliffs, a few dropping down into the ocean, along the far edge, up into the mountains. Tails pointed over to a small area by the ocean, that was raised up in the cliffs. Sitting on the top was metal building.

"That's home," Tails told her.

All Sapphire could say was, "wow..."

They both got off as Tails led Sapphire down off the station, then over and up to his workshop.

"It may be secluded, by the quiet is nice, and I have friends who visit all the time. Though if you'd rather stay in the city..."

"No, that's fine. It'd be nice not to stay somewhere so busy," Sapphire replied quickly.

"Well, come in, come in." And Tails opened the door and led her.

Until now, Sapphire had only been in public workshops, where she was closely watched, to make sure she didn't hurt herself, by order of her old home. But here, she saw a more personalized workplace. Tools hung on one of the walls. Of few work tables, most of them cleared, with two covered in projects that seemed hastily organized.

Towards the front, two planes where parked, one red, and one blue.

"Wow, this is..." Sapphire spoke up, stunned.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I tried to clean up," Tails replied.

"No... it's fine." Sapphire looked at the planes. "So, you have two planes?"

"Yeah. The red one actually belongs to Sonic, the Tornado. But I did build the blue one myself, modeled after the Sonic's, the Tornado 2."

"That's cool. I've never... been on a plane. I mean, aside from the one I took from my home. But... I've never been in a biplane."

"Hey, if you want, I can take you out sometime."

"Uh..." the thought made her nervous. A small plane in the sky, no air cover, aside from some goggles. "Well..."

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to answer now. And now that I think about it, you've had a long flight haven't you."

"Yeah... but I can-"

"Say no more," Tails told her. "Come with me."

Tails led her to a door in the back. He opened the door, and show her inside.

The room was simple. The metallic room's walls were bare, and there a window in the back. A bed was placed in one corner with a nightstand, a desk in another. There was also a bookcase and dresser along one of the walls, and a built-in heater/AC by the door.

"It's not much, but I figured we could decorate, make it more homely," Tails told her.

"Wait, so this is for me?" Sapphire asked.

"Yep, this is your room. I put a lot of effort in making it for you. Literally. I built this room from the ground up, adding it to the side of my workshop."

"I- I don't know what to say. Thank you. I've... I've never had my own room."

"Huh." Tails was silent for a moment. "Well, I'll give some time to rest. We can begin lessons whenever you want. Soon, preferably. Well, have a nice rest." And he stepped out to leave Sapphire to herself.

Sapphire placed her luggage next to the desk, and walked over to the bed, and she sat down on it. She grabbed the gray blanket that was laid over, and lifted it up. She then laid down, resting her head on the pillow.

This was her room. Her bed, her desk. This was a new life for her. She smiled in the thought, as she drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I couldn't get around to making this into the webcomic idea I had, I decided to just make this another written story alongside Undertale Fallen Determination.
> 
> This is Sapphire the Hedgehog's story. This will be a collection of short stories (with maybe the occasional arc), but for now, this is part 1 of 3 of the Intro story. Enjoy!
> 
> Here is Sapphire's Profile on DeviantArt, if you want to see it: [Sapphire the Hedgehog](https://www.deviantart.com/cobalt-gemini/art/Sapphire-the-Hedgehog-711628642)


	2. Introduction #2

The following morning, Sapphire began unpacking. She didn't have much, some extra clothing, some of her favorite books, a few toiletries.

She was putting away her stuff, when there was a knock on the door. "Sapphire. Can I come in?" Tails asked on the other side.

"Um, yeah, sure. I'm good. You can come in," Sapphire replied.

Tails walked in. "Hey, I made some breakfast."

"Oh, um... what you make?"

"Just some cinnamon rolls. I wasn't sure what you would like."

"Oh, that's fine."

"...So, wait, are those the clothes you wore yesterday?"

"Yeah, um, I just, went to bed after you gave me the room... I..."

"You were tired?"

Sapphire nodded.

"Yeah, that's okay. Come on, food's getting cold."

Sapphire enjoyed her food, while Tails wrote some things down while eating.

"So, I'm betting you want to spruce up your room?" Tails asked.

"Well, yeah. I'd like to paint the walls. Maybe get some more books, and stuff for my desk..."

"How much stuff do you have?"

"Sorry, no. I have some clothes and personal items, but..."

"Hey, no worries, we'll get you some more stuff. Anyways, when did you want to start working on your, well, lessons."

Sapphire's eyes lit up. "I, um sorry, this is just so exciting. How about... this afternoon! I want to get started as soon as we can."

"Well, okay then." Tails got up. "Well, I'm going to need to set things up."

"Okay, what are we going to make first."

"Something simple, to start. Is that fine, or maybe..."

"No, that's fine, that would make a good warm-"

Suddenly, the front door opened and closed impossible fast, with a burst of blue wind.

"-up," Sapphire finished, suddenly freaked out by what just happened.

Tails gave a small chuckle. "Hey, Sonic. Back so soon?"

"Wait, what-"

"Sup, Tails." A blue hedgehog suddenly appeared beside Tails. His quills were styled into spikes. He had green eyes, and wore white gloves, and red sneakers with white straps and gold buckles.

Sapphire couldn't believe it. Tails said she might meet him, but he was really here, in front of her. "You're... you're..."

"So, who's your friend?"

"Oh, this is my new protégé. You remember the contest I set up," Tails told the blue hedgehog.

"Yeah." He turned to Sapphire. "So what's your name?"

Sapphire remained quiet.

"She's shy, apparently," Tails said.

"Oh, I see." The hedgehog held out his hand. "Nothing to be shy about. I'm-"

"You're Sonic the Hedgehog!" Sapphire blurted out.

Sonic smiled and pointed at his chest. "Yep, that's me! Sonic the Hedgehog. Faster than sound. Scrambler of Eggmans."

Sapphire laughed. "That's really funny. It's good to meet you. I'm Sapphire."

"Nice to meet you," Sonic replied, and held out his hand again.

Sapphire pulled back a bit, like before with Tails, but then grasped his hand, followed by a shake.

"Well, that went better then I thought," Tails said.

"So, when are you two tinkerers going to start tinkering," Sonic said with a smirk.

"Sapphire said she wants to start this afternoon."

"Huh, is that so." Sonic leaned towards Sapphire. "So, you're ready to learn from someone younger than you?"

Tails was younger than her, wasn't he. Sapphire didn't think about that. She was fifteen, and Tails was, what, eight? No, he should've been older than that, given the time she's heard about him. Still, he was still a kid, and much younger than her.

"Yeah, pretty impressive for my little buddy, right?" Sonic continued.

"Geez," Tails replied. "Oh, Sapphire! Important question? Do you have any protective gear? You know, a mechanics outfit, a pair of safety goggles?"

"Oh," Sapphire looked down. "I'm sorry. I didn't have a lot of my own stuff to take with me, and didn't think about that."

"No worries, we can pick some up for you. We've got some time," Sonic replied.

"Wait, huh? Wouldn't it take a while to get into town? The train-"

"Well, you don't need to take the train, when you've got my fast two feet." Sonic offered his hand to Sapphire.

Sapphire pondered this. "Well, I suppose that... I will need this stuff. And if I'm going to be staying here, I might need some more clothes anyway... And it would be nice to see more of the city."

"So, what are we waiting for?"

Sapphire looked back up and nodded, then grabbed his hand. Sonic led Sapphire back outside, speaking to Tails, "We'll be back in a few hours."

"I should have everything ready by then. Oh, and don't forget to grab lunch before you guys come back."

Sonic nodded, and exited the workshop. Once outside, Sonic scooped Sapphire in his arms.

"Woah... th-this is, um..." Sapphire stuttered, nervous

"Trust me, going this fast, this is the safest way to travel," Sonic assured her.

And in a second, they were racing off.

* * *

They had been in the city, shopping for a few hours. Sonic, the nice guy that he was, offered to pay for Sapphire's new clothes. She didn't want to get a big wardrobe, but she made sure to get the essentials.

Now, with shopping bags in tow, they were wandering around, as Sonic pointed out different locals across the city.

"...And down there, is the Casinopolis. Um, you don't gamble, do you?" Sonic asked.

"No... I much rather earn my rings through hard work," Sapphire replied. "Besides, I'm still a little young for that, and, well..."

"Eh, don't sweat it. Just curious. I've been there once, searching for something. But that was a long time ago, one of my older adventures."

"I've heard a lot about your adventures, but never really got the chance to hear the exact details. I'm sure there's a lot of fun stuff you can tell me about."

"So, where do you come from, anyway?"

"Oh..." Sapphire looked away, "um, I'm from Blue Wave Islands."

"Really? That's a resort island, right? Must've been fun, growing up there."

"Not so much."

"Huh, why?" Sonic scooted up in front of Sapphire, walking backward.

"I... um..."

Suddenly, there was a voice calling out from behind them. "SONIC!"

Sapphire turned around to see a pink hedgehog running up. She had green eyes, a lighter shade than Sonic's, and was wearing a red dress, white gloves with gold wrist rings, and red boots with white stripes on the front.

Sonic sighed. "Amy..."

"Is she a friend of yours?" Sapphire asked.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Amy caught up to them, and took a good look at Sapphire. "Hey, um, who is this?"

"Oh, this is Sapphire, she's a new friend," Sonic replied.

"New friend?" Amy replied. She sounds skeptical.

"Yeah. Actually, she's-" Before Sonic could finish, Amy got in Sapphire's face. "Um, Amy?"

"Are you trying to take Sonic from me!?"

"H-hi..." Sapphire responded.

"Sonic is MY boyfriend!"

"I- I'm not-" Sapphire froze, as Amy, out of seemingly nowhere, pulled out a large, wooden hammer, with a red hammerhead.

Sapphire shrunk back, dropping her bags. "I'm sorry. Please, I- I-" And then she burst into tears, and ran off.

As Sapphire ran off, Sonic yelled, "Amy! That's Tails' new protégé! Remember the contest thing he was doing."

"Wait, what?" Amy replied.

"Trust me, I just met her. I was helping out with some shopping, and showing her around. Also, you've got to cool it with the whole dating thing."

"No! We're meant to be together!"

Sonic just crossed his arms, and tapped his foot. "And what tells you that?"

Amy grunted in annoyance.

"So, what are you going to do about Sapphire?" Sonic asked.

"Well, I-" Amy looked around. "Wait, where did she go?”

* * *

Sapphire ran away, crying. Amy really scared her. She'd never had anyone threaten her like that. Was Sonic really that important to her? Was it a bad idea to try to be friends with him?

She slipped into an alleyway, and crouched behind a garbage bin.

"...I'm really pathetic," Sapphire said to herself, sobbing.

She sat there for a while, lost in thought.

"Hey, kid, you okay?" a new voice spoke up.

Sapphire looked up to see a human, shaggy brown hair covering his face.

"Yeah, I just... got scared by something." Sapphire got up, acknowledging the new arrival.

"Oh, that's fine. Come on out," the human said.

Sapphire stepped out, and almost immediately noticed some odd shadows around. "Hey, um..."

"No, no, quiet now." Two figures appeared behind the human. As Sapphire stepped back, she bumped into someone. She spun around to see another two people. Soon, she was surrounded, three humans, a mobian jackal, and a mobian bear towering over her.

The first human she spoke to said, "no need to be scared. Give us everything you have, and we won't have to harm you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now Sapphire has met Sonic, and Amy, ...and has been put in a bad situation. So what happens next. How does she get out of this situation? This is part 2 of 3 of the Intro story, so it's not over yet.


	3. Introduction #3

Sapphire never felt so scared in her life. Surrounded by all these people, all threatening her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have anything,” Sapphire said.

“That’s a lie,” one of the humans said. This second human had black hair and amber eyes. “We know you have something.”

“Maybe she can take us to her place,” the jackal said. “Then she can give us everything from there.”

“Good idea,” said the first human. He turned to Sapphire. “So, what are you waiting for?”

“It- it doesn’t belong to me, I-” Sapphire stuttered.

“Of course not. It belongs to us.”

“No... no... I... I have friends.”

“Amazing.” The human pulled a knife. “We don’t care about your life. We want your stuff. So... GIVE IT TO US!”

Sapphire fell to the ground, and started sobbing. This day started out so great. Meeting her heroes, getting some new clothes. But now, she was scared off by one of Sonic’s friends, and now she was getting mugged.

“She’s crying, boys,” the bear spoke out. “How cute. Now, you do what we say you have to do, or else! NOW!”

Sapphire only continued sobbing.

The bear turned to the first human. “Fine. Give it to her.”

He lifted up his knife, ready to stab her. Sapphire was about to scream, when they all heard, “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”

All if Sapphire’s oppressors turned to whoever just spoke, but Sapphire couldn’t see him.

“Who the heck are you?” the human with the knife said.

“Go away,” the third human, his hair caramel brown and eyes blue, replied. “This is none of your concern.”

The new voice laughed. “Really. You’re going to tell me what to do. As if I’d listen to the likes of you.”

“Well, would you look at that,” the bear responded, “he thinks he’s a tough guy.”

“Heh, I’m rather confident,” the voice replied.

“Boys, let’s show him who he’s messing with.”

“Oh... I know who I’m messing with. Common thugs trying pry on an innocent person. In other words... cowards.”

“What!” the knife-wielding human cried out. “Who do you think you are?”

Sapphire heard of a few steps come towards them. “Let me tell you who YOU’RE messing with... I am Shadow the Hedgehog! The Ultimate Lifeform!” 

“Wh-what.” They all seemed to be pretty scared now. “You’re lying!”

“Then let me show you.” In the next second, the knife-wielding human was struck back, flying over Sapphire, and onto the ground, unconscious. The next few moments were so quick, Sapphire couldn’t determine who the new figure was.

The jackal pulled out a knife of his own, but in his attempt to stab the mysterious person, his wrist was grabbed and twisted, the jackal screaming out in pain, dropping the knife. The figure then pulled the jackal in the air, swinging him into the black-haired human, taking them both out.

The bear pulled back for a punch, but as he swung, the figure grabbed his fist, not even being pushed off balance, and threw him into a wall. As the bear slumped to the ground, still conscious, the figure jumped into the air, brought a swift kick to him, finally knocking him out.

The last human scrambled back, trying to get away. But the new figure dashed up, grabbed him by the shirt, and slammed him into a wall.

“Tell me, why do you think it is okay to harm someone else?” the figure, Shadow, asked.

“We... we just want-” the human started crying.

“Now you know how she feels. Do you feel any regret with that?”

“I- I- yes...”

“Good. If I find out that you and your friends do this again, you’ll regret it.” Shadow then punched him in the face, and he fell to the ground.

Shadow turned to Sapphire, and with all the action over, she was finally able to take a good look at him. He was a mobian hedgehog, one who kind of reminded her of Sonic. His fur was black with crimson red streaks going down his quills, which were styled into spikes, his arms, and his legs, and around the rim of his eyes. His eyes were the same red color. He had white fur on his chest, and was wearing white gloves with gold rings and black and red wrist bracers, and white, black, and red shoes with another set of the same rings and bracers. The shoes themselves seemed to be some kind of special technology.

Sapphire was still frightened by everything, and Shadow’s appearance and expression wasn’t helping much. She was only staring at this hedgehog in silence.

But then, as Shadow took her in, his expression softened. He seemed surprised, and a little confused. Then he collected himself, and helped Sapphire up. “Are you okay?”

Despite his intense appearance, his grip warm and comforting. Sapphire looked at him, and nodded, “Yeah.”

“What did they want?”

“They wanted everything I had. They wanted me to take them to my home, but... it’s not mine. And- and-”

“It’s okay,” Shadow pulled her into a hug. “You’re safe now, Maria.”

Sapphire was confused with this. “Um, my name isn’t-”

Shadow stepped away. “I’m sorry.”

“I- uh... It’s okay... I didn’t introduce myself, so, um...”

“Let me start then. My name is Shadow the Hedgehog.”

“Oh, okay... I’m... Sapphire. Sapphire the Hedgehog. It’s nice to meet you, Shadow.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Sapphire.”

Then they heard voices outside the allay, calling out for Sapphire.

Shadow stepped to the side of Sapphire, as Sonic and Amy walked by. Amy looked into the allay, and yelled, “Sonic, there she is.”

Sonic turned, and smiled. “There you are!”

The two of them dashed in. Sapphire stepped back in sight of Amy, and noticing this, Shadow stepped in front of her protectively.

Sonic and Amy slowed down as they reached her and noticed Shadow. Both of them were holding Sapphire's shopping bags.

Sonic took a look at Shadow. “Well, long time, no see, Shadow.”

“Sonic.”

Sonic and Amy looked around, seeing all of the knocked out thugs. “What happened here?” Amy asked.

Shadow looked at Sonic. “Sapphire, is she a friend of yours?”

“Uh, a new friend, but yeah. But that’s not-” Sonic started, before Shadow interrupted.

“These cowards attacked her. If it weren’t for me, who knows what would of happened to her.”

“WHAT!” Amy yelled, “how dare they! They’re gonna-”

“Amy,” Sonic interrupted, “you were the one who scared her away.”

“Well, I-”

Shadow got up close to Amy, and then said, “if she is your friend, you’d better treat her as a friend. Or else.” And then he walked off.

“Wh-what’s wrong with him...?” Sapphire asked.

“Shadow, well, he’s always like this. Though...” Sonic shook his head. “We should go back. Sorry about this. Maybe, you shouldn’t... that thing with Tails.”

“Yeah. Let’s go back.”

* * *

Sonic and Sapphire took the train back, not wanting to give Sapphire any more excitement. Amy stayed behind, in order to make sure the police got those crooks.

The two of them made their way back to Tails’ place. When Tails saw the sad shape Sapphire was in, he brought them in, and got Sapphire a cup of cocoa.

Sonic explained to him what happened, and Tails went lost in thought. “Wow, geez. I mean, Amy doesn’t surprise me, but still... man, this is not what I wanted to you deal with. And on your second day, too.”

“Amy made sure that they’re going to get what they deserve,” Sonic said.

“Yeah, but... I don’t know, do you feel safe here, Sapphire?”

“I-” Sapphire didn’t know what to say. “I... I’m sorry. I’m not very strong or brave. This could’ve happened at home, too. I was lucky to have people here to help me.”

“What about home?” Sonic asked. “Don’t you have friends and family?”

“Family? I...” A tear fell from Sapphire’s eye. “No, I... never had any.”

“What! Come on, you have to have someone... no parents? Siblings?”

“As far as I know, I don’t have siblings. That’s because, I... never knew my parents. I’m an orphan.”

“Oh...” Sonic replied.

“You’re home... Blue Wave Island, right?” Tails asked.

“Yeah, I lived in the local orphanage, and no one really liked me. I liked to read, and talk about smart stuff. No one at my orphanage wanted to be around a geek like me. And a lot of them even...”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Sonic replied.

“I didn’t want to bother you with my life story. I’m just here to learn. Not to meet my heroes, that was just...”

“Hey, Sapphire. Don’t worry about it. You’re in good company, now.”

“Yeah. Maybe you've been alone your whole life, but you have friends now,” Tails said.

“Hm... actually,” Sonic replied.

“Sonic what are you... oh.”

“I’m sorry. What are you two talking about,” Sapphire asked.

“Hey, how would you like to have your first family?” Sonic told her.

“Wh-WHAT!?”

“Well, Tails is like a brother to me. I have no problem with also having a sister.”

Sapphire couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She thought she came here to learn how to improve her skills as a mechanic. Never would she have thought she would find a family.

Tears in her eyes, Sapphire got up, and dashed towards Sonic, pulling him into a hug. “This... this is the happiest day of my life!”

“From bad to good, huh?” Sonic replied.

“Well, even still, maybe we should postpone your first lesson until tomorrow,” Tails said.

“That’s okay. Actually, I’d like to get to know my new brother better.”

Sonic smiled. “I’d like to get to know my sister, too.”

Sapphire stepped out of her hug. “Can I show a book I really like?”

Sonic gave her a thumbs up, and smiled ran off to her room.

Tails gave a small chuckle. “So, Sonic, why haven’t I ever met your family.”

“Well, haven’t talked to them in a while. But if you want to meet them, sure. I’d make a visit sometime.”

The two of them laughed, as Sapphire happily picked out a book from her stuff.

Finally, her life had changed for the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Shadow, Sapphire has been saved. And, of course, she has met Shadow. And he thought she was... Maria? Huh.
> 
> We also know that is an orphan now, and she now has a brother in Sonic. This is the last of the 3 part Intro Story. Now onto short stories.


	4. Blender

"...Okay, so now install the power source. Make sure the power switch is off first!" Tails told Sapphire, guiding her through the creation of the device they were making.

"Hm-hm," Sapphire replied. She already knew the basics, but she wanted to do this as a warmup. So she listened to Tails' instructions carefully, and wrote down notes on what she was doing.

They were working on that first machine Tails promised to help Sapphire make. For Sapphire, this was the first step to becoming a great mechanic.

They finishing up, adding the outer shell to the device, when Sonic came in.

He strolled up to Sapphire, and put his arm around her. "Hey, how's my new little sister?"

"Oh... I'm fine," she replied.

"I see you're feeling better after yesterday."

"I- uh, yeah. Thanks..."

"Like your new outfit?"

Sapphire smiled and nodded. She was now wearing her new mechanics' outfit, a blueish-gray top and pants with blue sleeves, grey boots with zippers, and a set of mobian-made welding googles. It was practical, and fairly cute and comfortable, too.

Sonic looked over at Sapphire and Tails' device. "So, whatcha makin'?"

"A blender!" Sapphire proclaimed.

"Really...?"

"Well, she's got to start somewhere," Tails replied.

"Um... I do already know how to do most of this kind of stuff myself. But some of it is new," Sapphire commented.

"Huh... Welp, when you finish that thing, are you planning to test it?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. Though, um, we may need some fruit or something."

"Well, we've got a few fruits in the fridge. Anything in particular you like?"

"Oh, do you have strawberries. I really like strawberries, they're my favorite food."

Sonic put his hand to his chin, then dashed out of the room for a moment. In seconds, he came back with a box of strawberries. "We have a few left."

"Yay!"

"Don't get too excited now," Tails replied. "You still have to finish the machine, first."

"Right." Sapphire returned to the blender, and began working with Tails to finish the lesson.

All they had to finish up was putting on the shell of the machine, put on the glass container and lid, and other small fixes and adjustments. Then finally it was time for the testing.

They ran the kitchen tool a couple of times to make sure it ran properly. When it did, they gathered the ingredients they needed for a strawberry smoothie.

"Okay, first official test. Time to make a smoothie," Sapphire exclaimed.

She looked over to Tails, who nodded in response, then to Sonic, who did the same.

Then they put stuff and hit the power. At first, everything was going okay.

Then it all went wrong. The blades began to spin faster and faster and then Tails said, "wait... GET BACK!"

Everyone stepped back as the glass of the blender's top burst open. Luckily the glass didn't hurt anyone, but they were covered in an unfinished strawberry smoothie.

Everyone was quiet, until Sonic spoke up, "welp, that was fun."

"Wh-what happened," Sapphire said, shaken, "I thought did everything right."

"It's okay," Tails replied. "I think the power source was too strong." He opened up the mechanical base, and looked inside. "Yeah, we put too many power wires into the mechanisms."

"I'm... sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, no, I said to do that. You did okay. Next time, I'll readjust the power source requirements... and bring fewer glass materials, next time."

Sapphire nodded.

Sonic dashed away, and came back, cleaned up and holding towels for everyone. As Sapphire and Tails took them, and cleaned themselves up, Sonic asked, "so, who wants to order a pizza?"

"Sonic, this wasn't lunch. Also, they don't deliver here. We're the Mystic Ruins, way out of the way from the city."

"I know. I was kidding. Trying to lighten the mode."

Sapphire looked over. "Maybe could you pick one up? I liked pizza, too."

"Sure, coming up, with Sonic speed!"

Sonic sped off, and Sapphire sat down, while Tails started cleaning up the mess.

"I screwed up, didn't I?" Sapphire said.

"Hey, it was just one mistake," Tails replied. "We don't learn if we don't make mistakes, and then try to do better."

Sapphire nodded.

"It'll be okay. We'll get back up, and we'll try again."

"Okay... we'll try again." And Sapphire got back up. "Mind if I help you?"

"Sure."

And the two of them finished clean up, as Sapphire recollected herself, and readied herself to do better next time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is supposed to be a very small first story. Mostly because I couldn't really think of anything better. Next time, I'm going to look up prompts to use for later. Then maybe later, I can make better short stories. But really, don't expect me to update these often, unless I make a multi-parter.


	5. Amy and Cream

Near the edge of the city, lay a small house surrounded by flower fields. This was the home of Cream the Rabbit, her chao friend, Cheese, and her mother, Vanilla.

Cream was a cream-colored, lop-eared, brown-eyed rabbit. She wore a white-collared orange dress with a light blue ribbon, white gloves, and orange and yellow shoes. Cheese was a small light-blue and yellow creature with rounded, blobby limbs and tail, pink, butterfly-like wings, a teardrop-shaped head, and a tiny yellow ball floating above him, like all other chao, while also wearing a red bowtie.

The two of them were hanging out with their friend, Amy Rose. They were making flower crowns, enjoying their time, though Cream noticed Amy seemed a little down.

"Amy, are you okay?" Cream asked.

"Huh, what? Oh, yeah, yeah I am," Amy replied.

"I don't know... you seem a little down."

Cheese flew up behind Cream, his arms crossed.

Amy sighed. "Fine. You know about Tails' new protégé?"

"Um, I heard he was looking for one," Cream replied. "Did he finally find one?"

"Yeah, he did, but... I don't think I got off on the right note with her."

"...Her?" Cream noticed. "Amy, did you think she was after Sonic?"

"...Maybe."

"Amy..." Cream sighed.

"Well, she was REALLY close to Sonic, acting all friendly with him. I KNEW she had to be after him."

"And?"

"Well... Sonic said that she was Tails' new protégé, and he was showing her around and... I... may have scared her away before that..."

"Did you find her and apologize?"

"Well, I found her, after Shadow saved her from some crooks, and she left with Sonic before I could say anything."

"Oh my! ...is she okay?

"Yeah... Shadow got in my face about not treating her like a friend, then left."

"Well, you should."

"Yeah, but it's been a week, and I haven't seen her, since. Or Sonic and Tails, for that matter."

Cream put her hand to her chin. "Well, do you know where is she staying?" she asked.

"Well, I'd imagine she's been staying at Tails," Amy replied. "Or at least, he'll know where she is."

"So, let's go meet her," Cream said, getting up and pulling Amy up, too.

"H-hey, wait a second!" Amy cried out, as she was dragged along.

* * *

Tails and Sapphire were in Sapphire's new room. They were finally looking into decorating the room. The heater did good in keeping the room warm, but with the metallic walls, they were considering adding carpet to help insulate warm. They were going to paint the walls, get new covers for her bed, and get a few doodads for her desk.

"So, what colors do you like?" Tails asked.

"Oh, um, I like the color blue, though maybe the walls should be a warmer color?" Sapphire replied.

"Maybe the carpets could be blue."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

There was a knock on the front door. Sapphire jumped a bit at the sudden, faint sound, while Tails turned to look out of the room.

"Sorry," Sapphire said, "I don't hear knocking a lot."

"It's fine..." Tails replied meekly. Then he went to the door to see who it was.

Amy and Cream stood at the entrance. Amy was holding her hands behind her back, looking nervous, while Cream hung behind her with Cheese looking over her shoulder.

"Hey, Tails," Amy said, "is, um, Sapphire around?"

Sapphire, hearing Amy's voice and remembering what happened with her a week ago, hides behind her bedroom door. What did she want? Did it have to do with Sonic?

"Um... yeah, she's here," Tails responded. "...Why don't you come in."

Sapphire saw Amy walk in with a cream-colored rabbit girl she's never met before, with a chao flying behind.

"Hey, Sapphire, someone would like to talk to you!" Tails called out.

Nervously, Sapphire walked out of her room.

"Sapphire, I'm sure you've met Amy before. And this is her friend is Cream the Rabbit, and her chao friend, Cheese," Tails introduced, then turning to the new arrivals. "This is Sapphire the Hedgehog, Sonic's new sister!"

"Oh, Sonic has a sister?" Cream replied. She walked up to Sapphire, and bowed to her. "It's really nice to meet you."

"Oh, yeah, nice to meet you, too," Sapphire said, rubbing her arms. "Um, no need to bow. ...I'm not that important."

"Cream's mom teaches her to be polite," Tails said. "Very polite."

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to make you feel bad or anything!"

"No, it's okay, Sapphire," Cream replied. "Cheese, say hi."

Cream's chao, Cheese flew up, and extended out his arm in greeting. Sapphire lightly squeezed it with her index finger and thumb, and shook it.

"Hey, Sapphire," Amy spoke up. "I wanted to apologize for what happened last week."

"Oh, I..." Sapphire hung her head low. "Sorry, it's... I don't blame you for those crooks. You couldn't have known that would happen."

"Thank you for not blaming me for that. But that's not the only part of it. I'm sorry for..." Amy took a deep breath, and remained quiet.

Cream leaned over. "Amy, what do you say?"

"I'm sorry for mistaking you and Sonic for... being together. And scaring you away."

"Um… Thank you." Sapphire was still nervous around Amy. Even with her apology, she still knew about her hammer. And her intensity about her… passion.

Still, she owed it to her to at least try to be thankful for her apology. She was a friend of Sonic's after all.

"Yeah, it's okay. Besides, Sonic took me in as his sister, so you're free to, um, be his girlfriend, I suppose.

"Sure she is…" both Tails and Cream replied in unison.

Sapphire looked at both of them in confusion. "What?"

"Oh, it's nothing you should worry about," Tails replied.

Amy seemed annoyed by Tails and Cream's comment, but she cooled herself down, and said, "okay, is there anything I can help you with? You know, to make things up to you."

"Um, I don't know…" Sapphire replied.

"Actually, maybe you can take her into town, and help her pick out some stuff for her room," Tails spoke up. "We're trying to decorate her room, make it more lively for her to stay in."

"YES!" Amy replied. "I'd love to go shopping with her."

"Your shopping for supplies, Amy. She's already had plenty to wear. Now, I'll provide the funds, you go out and find what you need."

Amy seemed a little disappointed, and Sapphire was nervous.

"Tails, are you sure about this?" she asked.

Tails leaned in to speak quietly to her. "Hey, it's okay. I know it's… difficult dealing with Amy, but she is a very nice person. I think it will do you good to get to know her, and you know, become friends. And besides, she knows more about all this… girly stuff…" he motioned to her room, "…than I would."

"I… um, okay," Sapphire was still a bit nervous, but he was right. She turned to Amy. "So, Amy, Cream. When do you want to leave?"

Amy smiles and turned to Cream, who seemed to be excited herself.

Sapphire, Amy, and Cream were walking around the city, checking a few different stores that would have what they were looking for. Tails made sure to give Sapphire a list of what they needed to look for, and a card with the rings needed to purchase these items digitally on it. She and Amy were talking about what Sapphire was looking for her room.

"...You know, if you're looking to use a blue carpet, maybe get yellow paint. It would match your colors," Amy told Sapphire.

"I guess, but not everything I wear is blue," Sapphire replied.

"Really."

"Well, most of my clothes are…"

Amy laughed at that.

Sapphire was getting more comfortable with Amy. She was still a bit nervous around her, partly due to her shyness, partly due to her knowing what Amy was capable of.

"So, can I ask. What is it that you like about Sonic?" Sapphire asked.

"Oh, he is so dreamy, and courageous. He's always there when you're in need. Aw, I would love it if he here now," Amy replied.

"Okay, well you don't have to worry about me and Sonic. He took me in as family, so I won't come between you two. And I don't want to."

"Hey, Sapphire…" Cream spoke up. She leaned towards Sapphire, and whispered, "this relationship is kind of one-sided."

"You sure?"

"Mhmm."

"What are you two talking about?" Amy asked, a little tense.

"Nothing!" both Sapphire and Cream replied at the same time.

"So, Sapphire," Cream started, trying to change the subject, "um, may I call you 'Saph'?"

"'Saph'? Oh, sure, Saph is fine."

"All right, so Saph, you're working with Tails now, right? How's that going?"

"Oh, it's going great. My apprenticeship with Tails is like a dream come true. I always wanted to meet my heroes, and this more than I could have ever asked for. I mean, I couldn't even imagine them becoming family. …Oh, and I'm learning so many new mechanical skills, too. Sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, that's okay. It's really amazing that all this has happened for you, Saph!"

Sapphire smiled. Cream was such a good person. Saph would love being friends with her.

"You know, I remember when I first met Sonic," Amy said.

"Oh, what happened?" Sapphire asked.

"Oh, I predicted that I would meet my hero on the Little Planet."

"'Predicted'?"

"Oh, yeah, I used to read tarot cards. But anyway, I went to Little Planet, met my hero, Sonic, as I predicted... then got kidnapped by Eggman and his robot copy of Sonic. Then Sonic came to save. Ah, my hero..."

"Oh... Hey, Cream," Sapphire turned to her. "When did you meet Sonic?"

"Oh, Sonic saved me and Cheese from Eggman, then we worked together to save my mom."

Cheese nodded behind Cream.

"Oh, so Sonic helped both of you. I guess you must be really good friends with him, then," Sapphire said. "I'm glad you know him."

As the three of them (plus Cheese) were walking along, talking, and searching for the items they were shopping for, Sapphire fell behind her friends. As she tried to catch up, past a couple of mobian boys.

"Hey, babe, how ya doin'," one of them asked.

Sapphire turned to them, confused. "Wha- huh? Did you want to ask me something?"

"Yeah," the other boy asked, "why don't you come hang with us."

"Um, sorry, I'm not sure... I don't know you guys. Maybe I should get my friends..."

"Oh, nothing to be nervous about," the first boy said, getting uncomfortably close.

"May… I leave now? I'm getting uncomfortable."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with us. Now-"

"HEY!" a voice called out. Looking over, they saw Amy, holding her hammer in her hands.

Seeing that hammer, Sapphire backed away. These creeps were one thing, but she still remembered Amy's weapon, and it scared her more.

Cream appeared behind Amy, looking furious, Cheese flying with her, pounding his "fists" together. "Are you trying to hurt my friend!?" Cream exclaimed.

The second boy said, "hey, hey, we just wanted to have some fun."

"She doesn't look like she's enjoying herself," Amy pointed out, before taking another step towards the boys.

"W-well, ma'am, we-"

"Buzz off!" Amy exclaimed, raising her hammer.

The mobian boys freaked out and ran off, leaving the girls alone.

"Sorry, Saph, we didn't realize you fell behind," Cream said.

"Seems you can't be left alone without someone trying to take advantage of you," Amy replied.

Sapphire didn't say anything, only staring at Amy's hammer.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked.

Cream picked up on what was going on. "Amy," she whispered, "your hammer. I thing Saph might…"

"Oh." Amy put her hammer away. "Sorry. You still don't like that, don't you."

Sapphire nodded, staring at the ground.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I'm… really sorry." Amy approached Sapphire. Saph stepped back nervously, but eventually let Amy give her an apologetic hug.

"It's... okay," Sapphire replied. "I'll get used to it."

"You know what, let's all get some ice cream. Then we can finish shopping."

"Yes, ice cream!" Cream exclaimed.

Sapphire nodded. She was still a bit scared of Amy when she pulled out her hammer, but she was a good friend, as well as Cream. Sapphire knew that they would be great friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted an early story about Sapphire getting to know Amy and Cream. Not sure how well I did, but I think I did alright. I also added to the canon of the story, finally getting to Sapphire's room, and giving her the short name of "Saph".
> 
> I was finishing up this story as I started looking up the new Team Sonic Racing game, and I realized that Amy has matured (as it were), and I'm writing her like her earlier self as that's what I think about when I think "Amy". I guess I have to figure out how to amend that later. But for now, I think it's a bit too late for that, the full story already has her like this, but I don't think that's bad. I just want to be up to date.
> 
> Also, I realized I've been making a lot of unnamed minor characters. I do it because they're supposed to be one use, just for the immediate story, but I hope to move away from that soon.


	6. Chao Garden

"Oh, today's going to be so fun! I can't wait." Sapphire was happily humming to herself as she prepared herself snacks and a lunch for an outing she had planned.

"Hey, Sapphire, so what are your plans today?" Sonic asked, slipping into the kitchen at his famous speed.

"OH! Sonic!" Sapphire replied in shock. She was getting more used to talking with Sonic, getting over her shyness with him, at most, but he still managed to constantly catch her off guard with his speed. "You surprised me! I... um, Cream wanted to spend some more time with me after that shopping day. I spent a lot of my time with Amy, mostly, so Cream asked if she could have a play date later."

"Hm, so, did she want to do anything special with you?"

"Yes... she wants us to visit her favorite Chao Garden. Though she hasn't told me where it is yet..."

Sonic gave her thumbs up. "Hey, that's great! Cream is a good friend to have, and a lovely girl once you get to know her. I'm sure you'll have a great time with her."

"Thanks, nice to know. I'll remember that, Sonic." Sapphire finished making her lunch and snacks for the day, and began making her way to the front door. "Well, I need to go now. Have a good day!"

"Yep! Maybe I'll drop by to see how you're doing."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Anyways, see you later!" And Sapphire made her leave.

* * *

Cream was with her mother, finishing up a picnic basket lunch for the day out with Sapphire.

"Oh, I can't wait for Saph to come over. I hope she likes the food we made," Cream told her mother.

She smiled. "Oh, I am sure she'll love it."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Cream exclaimed, heading to the door.

Once Cream opened it up, she found Sapphire standing there, holding a small thermos-duffel bag.

"H-hi, Cream, …I'm here," Sapphire said.

"Hey, Saph. You don't need to be so nervous. We're friends," Cream replied.

"Yeah, sorry… I'm just… not used to having friends."

"Alright. Hey, why don't you come meet my mom!"

Cream grabbed Sapphire's arm, and pulled her towards the kitchen.

There, Sapphire saw a tall rabbit-mobian woman. She shared the same cream-colored fur, brown eyes, and lopped ears as Cream, though she had a tuft of light brown hair on her forehead and between her ears (which reminded Sapphire of her own hair framing her face). She wore a long, light purple dress with white trim, a dark red-ish purple vest and blue ascot on top, white gloves with gold cufflinks, and low-heeled shoes the same color as her vest, and she had pink lipstick on.

"Oh, hello. You must be Cream's friend, Sapphire. My name is Vanilla. I am Cream's mother," she said, introducing herself.

"Um, yes. I'm Sapphire, Saph for short," Sapphire replied.

"Oh, well don't you like such a nice girl."

"Thank you." Sapphire took a look around the kitchen, and noticed the picnic basket. "…Um, is that for us?"

"Hm," Vanilla turned to where Sapphire was looking. "Oh, of course! It's for all of us. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I…" Sapphire presented her small bag. "I already made my lunch. I'm sorry! I didn't know you were going to… well…"

"Oh, don't worry about it, dear." Vanilla lightly pushed Sapphire's arms down and smiled. "It's okay. You can still feel free to have some food from our basket."

"Oh, thank you. I... if you want, I could share a bit of mine."

"Oh, how nice of you." Vanilla turned to Cream. "Sweetie, could you go and get a picnic blanket."

"Yes," replied Cream, and she ran upstairs, with Cheese right behind her.

"So, you live with Sonic and Tails, correct?" Vanilla asked.

"Yes. It's so nice to be able to... well..." Sapphire trailed off, too embarrassed to finish what she was saying.

"A family," Vanilla replied. "Amy and Cream told me all about you. About you being an orphan, and how Sonic took you in as his sister."

"Oh, I don't remember telling them... Sonic or Tails probably told them."

"It's okay. Though, I can't imagine what it must be like to not have any parents." Vanilla sighed. "You know, I really don't tell anyone this, but it's not easy being a single mother. That's why I'm happy Cream made so many good friends that we can trust. But on the other hand, I'm sure, deep down, Cream is grateful to have a mother. And, I bet you wish you had one too."

Sapphire looked down. "Yeah. I do. The people who worked at my orphanage were nice enough, but it's not the same... not that I know what it's like to even have parents."

"Oh, it's okay, dear..." Vanilla came in and gave Sapphire a hug.

Cream and Cheese came back down, holding the blanket she was asked to get, as Vanilla let go of Sapphire.

"I got the blanket!" Cream exclaimed. Cheese gave a happy "Chao!" response.

"Thank you. Okay, I believe we have everything now. Shall we pack up the car and head out?"

"So, Ms. Vanilla, where is this Chao Garden? I've read stories about them, and I know they're hidden all over the place, so... uh..."

"Oh, don't worry. This one is in a safe and familiar place. As far as I know, it's only known to our closest friends," Vanilla replied as has grabbed the now packed picnic basket. "It's in the Green Hill Zone."

* * *

Sapphire was excited. She had read about Green Hill, and Sonic had told her a lot about the area as well. From what he had said, Sapphire knew that it was his favorite place to run.

Moreover, she was excited to see a natural Chao Garden. She had seen lots of chao before, and has even been in a couple of the manmade habitats on her home island. She has always longed to see a real Chao Garden.

They were supposed to secret paradises, hidden from the world, where Chao would live free of all the of the dangers in the world, happy and safe. They are rare and very hard to find. And usually, if someone found one, they would choose to keep it a secret between themselves and their most trusted peers, or else the chao's home would sooner or later find itself destroyed by malicious outsiders.

Vanilla drove Cream, Cheese, and Sapphire to the edge of Green Hill, a sprawling field of bright green grass, crystalline lakes, and mountainous cliffs. Sunflowers, palm trees and strange totem poles dotted the landscape. Numerous waterfalls could be seen flowing from the distant cliffs, leading into the many lakes and rivers, a few spanned by bridges. And the oddest thing, the cliff sides had a checker-board pattern to them.

Still, there was only one thing Sapphire could say to all this...

"This... this is beautiful..."

Cream ran to her side as they exited the car. "Yep. I love coming by here, and just frolic through the plains," she told Sapphire.

"Yeah… I can see why."

Vanilla grabbed the basket and blanket. "Well, from here, we'll need to walk. Shall we."

Sapphire nodded, while Cream said, "yes," and Cheese followed with a resounding, "chao!"

The four of them walked along ridges and across bridges. Sapphire took in all the beauty of the Hills, watching small animals happily roaming about.

After almost an hour of walking, they reached a cliffside, surrounded by large bushes.

"Here we are," Vanilla told the young girls.

"So… is this where the Garden entrance is hidden?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes, it's pretty well hidden, follow us." Vanilla began slipping between two the bushes, and Cream and Cheese happily followed along.

Sapphire carefully slipped between the bushes, and found herself catching herself on lower footholds, as she was now in a small tunnel leading down a small slope and into a low-ceiling passageway.

She could hear the others already ahead of her. So she crouched down, and began walking through the tunnel, careful not to hit her head on the low ceiling.

It wasn't long before she could see light on the other side of the tunnel, and once she emerged, she held her breath.

If Green Hill itself was beautiful, then this was a paradise. It was a small cove area, surrounded by cliffs, with a few tiny waterfalls flowing into shallow pools. Scattered about, there were trees and bushes bearing numerous fruit. A sandy and pristine beach spanned the short length across from her.

…And chao. Chao everywhere. Flying about, resting or playing, enjoying the fruit taken from the plant life. There were chao of many different colors and types.

It was better than Sapphire could've imagined.

Cream and Vanilla were setting up the blanket, while Cheese had started playing with the other chao. Luckily, Sapphire was able to pick him out among all the other Chao thanks to his bow tie.

"Hey, Saph! Over here!" Cream called over.

Sapphire listened and joined Cream and Vanilla with setting up the picnic stuff. While that happened, many of the chao being to slowly approach this new, mysterious stranger who was with some of their occasion visitors.

At first, Sapphire was oblivious to this. But after a while, once the picnic was set up, one of the chao got brave enough to get closer and grab her leg.

Sapphire freaked out, scaring the chao away, but Vanilla approached to calm her down. "It's okay," she told her. Vanilla grabbed her hand, and the two of them slowly approached the scared chao. They carefully crouched next to the little guy, and Vanilla coached Sapphire to carefully hold her hand out to it.

The chao was a neutral chao, similar to Cheese, though this one was green. He shyly bundled up into a ball.

"H-hey, I'm sorry I freaked out, you just... um..." Sapphire spoke softly with the chao.

She didn't say much, but it seemed the chao understood, and slowly flew into her hand.

"Oh." Sapphire then giggled softly. "Aren't you cute," she said, as she began playfully poking his stomach.

Over a few hours, Sapphire slowly became comfortable with the all chao in the garden. The green chao, especially, became rather close with Sapphire. At this point, Sapphire was considering giving him a name.

Sapphire, Cream, and Vanilla had begun lunch. sapphire had made a simple peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich, with strawberries as a snack. Vanilla and Cream had prepared sandwiches themselves, though their's were cucumber-and-cheese sandwiches. They also had brought crackers and various fresh fruit, some of which were used for the chao. Sapphire happily fed the chao the fruit.

"So, Sapphire, I hope you do not mind if I ask, could you tell me what was life like where you come from?" Vanilla asked.

"Oh, well, you know I'm an orphan," Sapphire started," I used to live on Blue Wave Island, and well… I felt more comfortable reading books, and, when I got older and inspired by Tails, tinkering. I was always smarter than everyone else at the orphanage, and they… didn't seem to like it. I was that one girl everyone bullied. The caretakers did there to stop it, but…"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sapphire. You've had such a hard life. I guess, all orphans want a family… they might've been scared that not just beautiful, but also intelligent young girl would get adopted before you."

"I guess that makes sense… But then never happened. I guess… I was always too shy to speak to others. I never really let myself become noticeable, because I was too nervous to."

"Not one to communicate with others, it would seem."

"But, Sapphire, look at you now," Cream exclaimed. "Sonic is your brother now, so you are adopted. You also now have friends like me and Cheese, Amy, and Tails. And there are a lot more people we think should meet as well."

"I guess… yeah! I suppose that's right," Sapphire replied. "I mean… I still getting used to you all. But I do feel a little more comfortable with you. This… none of this might of ever happened if Tails didn't choose me as his apprentice… or if I even wanted to learn mechanics in the first place."

The green chao happily flopped on Sapphire's shoulder. Then he slid down, and took one her remaining strawberries, though Sapphire didn't mind.

"Yes, that's right!" Vanilla said. "Because you are that beautiful and intelligent girl I mentioned. And you deserve to have those who love you and care about you."

"Thank you, Ms. Vanilla," Sapphire replied. She really liked Cream's mom. She was so nice and loving. This was someone she could look up to. She wanted to spend more time with her in the future.

"She's right you know," a voice spoke behind her, immediately followed by a burst of wind.

"AH!" Sapphire freaked out by the sudden new arrival, scaring the timid chao away, except for her green friend, who flew behind Sapphire, and clung to her leg, hiding from the new arrival.

"Sonic, I know you're fast," Vanilla told the arrival, "but you should slow down enough not surprise others when you approach them in greeting."

Sapphire spun around to find that, indeed, the Blue Blur himself was standing above her.

"Wh-what are you doing here!?" Sapphire cried out.

"Well, I did say I might drop by. Besides, what kind of brother would I be if I didn't mess with you," Sonic replied.

"Oh dear," Vanilla said as she shook her head.

"Figured that this would be the place you were going to. Glad to see that you're having a good time," Sonic continued, "you're growing. Now, who's your favorite chao here?"

"Oh, uh... this little guy," Sapphire carefully grabbed the green chao, and held him up for Sonic to see. The little guy raised his arms to Sonic.

"Yeah, this guy is shy, but he attaches quickly. Hm, makes me think of someone..."

Sapphire looked away and blushed as every else laughed this.

Still, Sapphire was happy to have made such good friends. She never thought this would happen. And she knew Sonic had more friends for her to meet. She wondered who she might meet next...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, looking back at the last chapter, I introduced Cream, but focused more on Amy fixing her friendship with Sapphire, so she became an add-on, really, simply because they were close friends. So I decided to make this chapter with more focus on her and her family, and put it in the theme of chao, because chao are fun.
> 
> All also wanted to some point to introduce Cream's mom, Vanilla, to Sapphire, simply because she would be a good mother figure for Saph, when she never had one.
> 
> Yes, I did use Green Hill as the area theme this time around. Honestly, it was a matter of time for me. Despite SEGA's overuse of pandering to nostalgia, I still at least don't mind Green Hill's inclusion (except in Forces, where they merged it with my least favorite level theme, the desert. Yeah, it makes sense for the story, except the beginning stage, which took place before the war). But I do agree, SEGA's has ruined Green Hill's nostalgia by treating it similar to Mario's World 1 green-plains level, and that makes me sad. So, I choose to remember Green Hill for what it was, not what it is now.
> 
> And yes, the cucumber sandwich is a reference to Sonic Unleashed. Honestly, I couldn't think of anything better, so I chose to use the reference. Think of it as Professor Pickle's art spreading wide across the world.
> 
> And finally, the green chao is based on Maximof, the chao I raised during my personal all emblems run of Sonic Adventure DX.
> 
> I'm reading the new run of Sonic comics, the Sonic IDW Comics, and I feel sorry for what happened to her in Issue #18 (I also realized I forgot about Chocola. Oops, well too late now. I'll rectify this in a later story).


	7. Misunderstanding

Near the edge city, living in a small building, was Shadow the Hedgehog. He was sitting alone, drinking hot cocoa, and starring out the window, lost in thought.

"...That girl," he muttered, "who was she? What does she have to do the Sonic?"

"Are you still brooding, Shadow?" a sultry voice spoke at the door opening.

Shadow turned to his visitor. "Rouge."

Rouge walked into the room, and stood behind his chair, leaning on it and looking down at him. She was of Shadow's closest friends, as well as one of his only true friends. She was flirty, and a bit greedy, having a love of precious jewels.

Rouge was a mobian bat with white fur, bare, tan skin on her arms and muzzle, and teal eyes. She had large pointy ears, sharp bat fangs, a short tail, and large black bat wings on her back. And her figure was quite well developed. Her short hair was flared back, she had blue eyeshadow and some lipstick on. She wore a black, sleeveless unitard with a pink heart in white trim on the upper-chest, revealing some cleavage, and had long white gloves and tall high-heeled boots, both of which had pink cuffs, and the boots had pink hearts on the toes.

"I know you do this on occasion, but you've been really down in dumps lately. What's going on with you?" Rouge asked.

"Do you have a mission for me?" Shadow responded.

"That's all you've said for the past few weeks!" Rouge exclaimed, starting to walk away.

"It keeps my mind off things."

Rouge spun back around. "So you admit something is wrong!"

"Rouge…"

"Yes?"

"This is none of concern," Shadow said sternly.

"Oh, come on. We're friends, rights? You can tell me," Rouge pleaded.

Shadow gave out a big sigh. "If I tell you, will you stop bothering me about this?"

"Of course!"

"Fine… If you want your answers. Go to Sonic's home, ask about Sapphire."

"Ugh, so cryptic," Rouge replied as she began flying low out of the room. "…Though," she said quietly, "if Sonic has a jewel like that, I wouldn't mind… taking a look at his possession."

As Rouge left the building, Shadow, looking out the window, watched her fly off.

"Wait… I probably should've told her that Sapphire is a person."

* * *

Sonic and Sapphire were visiting a café to grab some lunch. It was called the "Violet Café", and was a small restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating areas, with, of course, a general purple color scheme, with flower designs painted on the walls. Neither of them had been there before, but Saph wanted to give it a try.

As they sat inside, and waited for their food, they had a nice chat.

"Oh, okay, so Saph, huh?" Sonic said, chuckling a bit. "You know, that is a pretty good nickname. Mind if I use it?"

"Oh, sure, that's fine," Sapphire said, "I mean, I don't think my name is that hard to say, but short versions of names aren't bad. Amy and Cream wanted to use it, so you can, too."

"Heh, alright," Sonic said, as their food arrived. Sonic got chilidogs (no surprise there), while Sapphire got some pizza and a few pastries she wanted to try. Both got cups of sodas for drinks.

As they ate, Sonic asked Sapphire, "so, are you enjoying your new life here?"

"Oh, it's great. I'm learning so from Tails, I've made some new friends, I… I have a family now," Sapphire told him.

"Well, I'm glad that you're liking it here. You know, I've never had a sister before. I have tons of friends, ones that I care about a lot. But a sister... that's something I need to get used to."

"I feel the same, but I've never had friends either. It's hard to believe I do now, but it's… really nice."

Sapphire reached for her soda, but she accidentally bumped it, and it fell over and spilled on her clothes.

"AH!" she screamed.

"Ah, geez, you got to be more careful, Saph," Sonic said, laughing a bit.

Sapphire pouted at him, but quickly calmed down. "At least it didn't land on my food. I'm going to the restroom to try to clean up."

As Sapphire left, Sonic called for someone to come clean up and get her a new drink.

A few moments later, just as Sonic was leaning back to relax, someone spoke behind him.

"Ah, there you are, Big Blue!" the sneaky woman said, walking out from behind him, in front of Sonic.

"Oh, uh, hey, Rouge," Sonic replied. "Always have to sneak up to us, I see. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Oh, you know, business as usual. So, do you mind if I join you?"

"Uh, sure…" and Sonic tapped by an empty seat, between his seat and Sapphire's.

As Rouge sat down, she noticed the other plate of food. "So, are you on a date with someone special, Big Blue?"

"Well, not a date, but she is important to me," Sonic replied.

"I see. Well, enough about that. I'm here to speak with you."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What about?"

"A little birdie told me that you have something… precious."

"Oh, okay, now I know what this is about. You think that I have some jewels, and you're trying to get me to tell where they are."

"What, of course not!"

"Please, we may not hang out much, but I know you. You probably snuck into Tails' place, found nothing, and then decided to get the info from me. Well, here's the honest truth… I don't have any."

"What?" Rouge replied, trying to sound more confused than annoyed.

"You've been duped, Rouge. You know that I often have Chaos Emeralds, but not at this current moment. And I've never been interested in normal gems," Sonic explained.

"I see," Rouge responded. "Well, I suppose I'll be going now."

Rouge was about to get up to leave, disappointed in her findings, when someone said, "u-uh, hi…" She turned to see a hedgehog girl with yellow fur and quills, blonde hair, and wearing blue clothes, sitting down where the previously unattended plate of food was. "Sonic, is this another friend of yours?" the girl asked Sonic.

"Kind of," Sonic told her. "This is Rouge the Bat. She's… um… Oh, now I see what's going on."

"What?" both girls exclaimed, for different reasons.

"Oh, nothing. Now, why don't you two introduce yourselves."

"Alright, fine. Okay then, Blondie." Rouge turned the new girl. "As Big Blue said, I am Rouge. I'm known as the world's greatest treasure hunter."

"Oh, that's… interesting," the girl said meekly. "I'm Sonic's n-new, uh, adopted sister... And Tails' apprentice. My name is Sapphire."

"Sapphire," Rouge said flatly.

"Yeah, or Saph… for short."

"Your name is Sapphire."

"Y-yes…"

"You're what Shadow was talking about!"

"Sh-Shadow? You know-"

"Of course there weren't any jewels. It was just some random girl!"

"I knew it," Sonic chimed in.

Rouge just gave out a "hmph!" to Sonic.

"W-wait!" Sapphire spoke up. "You know Shadow?"

"Yes, we are part of the same team, Team Dark. What, have you met him?"

"He saved her from some thugs trying to rob her," Sonic replied. "Then he just left, after getting in Amy's face at least. It was a... complicated situation."

"Is that so." Rouge leaned in towards Sapphire. "Okay, so tell me, Blondie, why is Shadow so interested in you?"

"I don't know! And please don't call me Blondie," Sapphire replied.

"Wait, Sapphire is still on Shadow's mind?" Sonic asked. "I mean, I haven't seen him since then, but I don't see why he'd be bothered with her."

"That's what I'd like to know," Rouge responded, "so what exactly happened."

Sapphire explained how after Amy sacred her off, she ran into those thugs, and Shadow came in to save her.

"...Oh! There was one... kind of strange thing he said," Sapphire continued, "I think, before he introduced himself, he called me... Maria."

"Maria?" Rouge responded.

"Y-yeah... Does it mean anything important?"

Sonic and Rouge looked at each other, seemingly thinking the same thing.

"I really haven't seen her," Sonic replied, "I've only heard recordings of her voice."

"I've seen photos of her in G.U.N. reports," Rouge said. She took a quick glance at Sapphire. "I guess, maybe she looks kind of similar... but no, I don't think she the same as that girl."

"What are you two talking about?" Sapphire asked.

"Nothing you should concern yourself with." Rouge got up, and prepared to leave. "I need to go talk to Shadow about this. See you Big Blue, Blondie." Then she exited left the building and flew off.

"Sonic, what's going on?"

"Uh, best leave that up to Rouge and Shadow," Sonic said.

"Oh, okay." Sapphire looked back to where Rouge was.

So Shadow... remembered her. And he was thinking about her. Could she see him again, maybe become friends?

Sonic sighed. "You know, for now, let's get take-out containers, and head home. It's been a weird day."

"S-sure," Sapphire replied. But she still could only think about Shadow.

Why did she bother him so much? Was it anything she did wrong? And what was the deal with this "Maria" character?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to introduce Rouge this time around. She's not my favorite character, not by a long shot, but she is an important Sonic character (one the most recognizable ones in my eyes), and she a member of Team Dark, and when I have a lot of focus on Shadow planned, I think it's kind of important to have her around (Omega, not so much, he wasn't an original member, even if he has been around for almost as long. But he'll come later, trust me, he's one of my favorite characters, I wouldn't leave him out. Just waiting for the right moment). I realized that, of course, Rouge liked jewels, and Sapphire was named after a precious gemstone, so I thought that her introduction could be treated as an amusing misunderstanding.
> 
> I kind of wanted to introduce Knuckles before introducing Rouge, but looking at the story pacing I want, I thought now would be a good chance. I'll probably introduce him in the next one or two chapters, don't worry.
> 
> Also, this is the first time Shadow has appeared since the intro. To be honest, he's fallen out of being a favorite character of mine, due to his current characterization. To understand why, listen to his racing lines in Team Sonic Racing, or, now that I am reading Sonic IDW Comics... if you read Issue #19, he is the one character that I don't feel sorry for, given his arrogance in the comic (though it is worrisome, considering what he is capable of). But I wrote Sapphire around him a bit, so I will use him, but I want to focus more on why I liked him in the first place... his story in Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and even his own game, to SOME degree. It's what made Shadow... Shadow, and it's disappointing to see him fall so far from that. So here's hoping I succeed in writing him better.


	8. Taking Flight

It was a peaceful morning. Sapphire was getting herself breakfast. Tails was tinkering in the workshop downstairs. Sonic was out for a run.

Many mornings were like this. They were nice, and Sapphire enjoyed them. Sonic wished there would be a little more action, always looking for the next adventure, but he was happy that his friends and family were enjoying the peace. And Sapphire, not much one for adventure, liked the quiet days. Well, as quiet as you can get with two mechanics consistently working each day. She was thinking she'd have to invest in some earplugs.

As Sapphire was finishing up her waffles, she heard the door open. Looking over, she saw Sonic coming back in from his run.

"Hey there, sis," he said, walking in through the balcony door. Hey, if you're as fast and agile as Sonic was, you could easily make it to a balcony from the ground with ease. At this point, Sapphire has gotten used to it.

"Oh, hi," Sapphire replied, taking a moment to look up and acknowledge him. "Enjoy your run?"

"Yep. From here to Green Hill."

"Wow, that's pretty far. And you ran there in only a few hours? Just how fast are you?"

"Hm, never really thought about it. I know Tails occasionally tracks me and tries to record my abilities. Maybe he could tell you."

"It must be fun, to be able to run so fast," Sapphire said, as she put her waffles on a plate, and began buttering them.

"So, are there any waffles for me?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't think that you'd-"

"Don't worry about it, I'm just teasing you," Sonic cut in. "You know, it isn't just about the rush of speed."

"Oh, yeah, it's… about the adventure, right?"

"Yep," Sonic said as he grabbed the orange juice, "Now, I do love running, but it's easy to miss the small things. Sometimes, you've got to stop and take it all in. And then, of course, there is overcoming the challenge of getting there, where ever that may be. Sometimes, you don't know until you get there."

"Must be nice. And whenever Eggman attacks…"

"He's a good excuse for adventure, I'll give him that. But he wants to destroy everything that there is to experience, not to mention taking away everyone's freedom. That's why he needs to be stopped every time."

Sapphire hung her head low. "Still, it's nice to see that you can still have fun with it."

"Yeah, Tails told me that you didn't think it was for you. But you know, I think you haven't given it a change."

"Well, I... I'm not..."

"He said you didn't think that you were fast or brave," Sonic replied. "Though it isn't about speed. And as for being brave... Well, to overcome fear, you need to face it."

"...Thanks, Sonic, but I don't think I can."

Sonic shook his head. "Nah, nothing as big as helping me stop Eggman. Maybe something smaller, but exciting."

"I'm more comfortable with my machines," Sapphire responded.

Sonic thought for a moment, then smiled. "Then I know just the thing. Meet me in the hanger after you finish your breakfast."

"You mean the workshop?"

"Same thing here, really."

* * *

"Sonic, are you sure about this?" Tails asked his blue friend.

"Come on, buddy, what's the harm?" Sonic replied.

"Look, she learns quickly, but this is expecting a lot, even for her."

"Don't worry, I'll go up with her. Just like you and I do all the time."

At that moment, Sapphire came into the workshop. "Sonic, I don't know what you have planned, but I..."

"Hey, sis. Ready to get started?" Sonic asked her.

Tails rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. Let me see if I can't connect to the remote control and autopilot, just in case." And he went grab his computer device.

"Sonic... really... I..." Sapphire tried to say.

"Come on, Saph, give it a try," Sonic replied.

"...What do you have in mind?"

"You're… going to fly… my plane!"

"W-w-w-wait, WHAT!?" Sapphire exclaimed. "But I've never-"

"Oh come on, you said that you're more comfortable with machines, right? Well, I think this is the best of both worlds."

"This isn't exactly the same thing…"

"Listen, I'll fly up with you. Tails said he'll get the remote control running for the plane, just in case something goes wrong. And come on, don't you want to try to it?"

Sapphire had to admit, she wanted to get a chance to fly in one of the Tornado planes. Or at least, get a closer look at them. She saw them every day, and really wanted to open them up to see how they worked. But neither of those did she want to do without permission, or without a lot more taught to her about mechanics. And never did she think about flying the planes herself.

...But now that the offer was being given to her, she was tempted.

After giving it some thought, she made up her mind. "...Okay, just give me some time to familiarize myself to the controls, and maybe I'll... give it a try."

Sonic smiled, and then turned to Tails. "Hear that, she's said she going to do it. Now backing down!"

"W-wait- Now hang on! I didn't mean it-"

"Don't worry," Tails replied, "Sonic knows what he's doing, and so do I. We'll keep you from crashing. And Sonic, signal me on your communicator if you think she needs help." He input some commands on his device. "Now, let's get you familiarized with those controls."

* * *

Past noon-day, Sonic's red and yellow Tornado biplane was rolled out onto the runway. That alone was impressive, because Tails had it hidden under this long strip of road outside of his workshop, with palm trees planted along the edges. How it worked was that the potted trees would be leaned away from the runway, while the runway rose from the ground, starting from the workshop's garage.

Sapphire was sitting in the cockpit, examining the controls, as the engine powered up. She now sported a pair of spare aviator goggles that Tails gave her, and had zipped up her jacket.

Tails was right about one thing. She had already memorized what controls there were, and what they did. But trying to working them was another thing. Sapphire was beginning to rethink taking flight.

Before she could fully consider that, though, Sonic jumped up onto the top wings of the biplane.

"That doesn't seem safe," Sapphire quickly noted.

"For me, it's fine. I always do this," Sonic replied.

 _Well, if you're the fastest thing alive, and far more agile and perhaps more durable than the average mobian,_ Sapphire thought. _Still, doesn't make it seem any less dangerous._

"So, ready to take flight?"

Sapphire looked down the runway. "Can't really start slow, can you?"

Sonic looked down the runway. "Sometimes you have to run before you can walk."

Sapphire wanted to say something, maybe consider something else, but she was here now...

With everything ready to go, Sapphire hit the acceleration.

As the engine roared to life, the Tornado shot down the runway.

"Pull up! Get us in the air!" Sonic said, sounding almost excited.

Sapphire pulled up, and Tornado flew into the air.

"Good job, now keep it level," Sonic said. But the plane kept climbing in altitude. "Sapphire?"

Looking down, he could see that she had clammed up. She wasn't moving, testing the controls, checking the gauges, anything. She was completely stiff and pale.

"Sapphire!" Sonic called out.

"YES!" She replied stiffly.

"Loosen up!"

"I... I can't-"

Sonic was thinking he might need to call Tails to remote control the plane, but he still wanted to give her a chance.

"Okay, Saph, listen to me. Close your eyes and listen."

"BUT WE'RE FLYING A PLANE!?" she cried in response.

"Just listen."

Sapphire closed her eyes, and listened to the wind. She was still freaked out, but it was... calming.

"Okay, pull down, just a bit..." Sonic said.

Sapphire did so.

"Alright, stop. Pull it back up. Keep it level. Okay... open your eyes."

Sapphire's eyes slowly unclenched. Now she was flying the plane level.

"Sapphire, look down. Not straight down, just take in the view. There's no need to be afraid."

She looked down below. Mountains, valleys, forests, the vast ocean. Seeing them up in the air, it was terrifying. ...And yet...

"It's... beautiful!" Sapphire exclaimed.

"See. It's not just about the danger and excitement. It's also about what you see on the other side. And there is always something to see," Sonic explained. "Something worth finding, something worth protecting."

"Wow... So this is why you do what you do."

Sonic smiled. "So, think you can try something more exciting?"

"Ah... Wh-what!?"

"Come on, Saph. 'An adventure is no fun if there is no challenge.'"

Sapphire wanted to argue, but Sonic was right. The longer she stayed up here, the more terrified she got, but still, she made it this far. Might as well go farther.

"Okay, what should I do?"

Sonic leaned down on the wings, looking down at the valley. "Try flying down there."

Sapphire nodded, and carefully lowered the plane until she was gliding above the tree line.

"Okay, what next?"

"Fly through there." Sonic pointed to break in cliffs, wide enough for the plane to fit through, though still not the safest place to fly through.

"Are you sure!?"

Sonic smiled and nodded.

Sapphire was scared, but she gripped he controls, and turned towards the crevice.

The moment they entered the rocky crevice, Sonic began rapid-firing commands, Sapphire quickly following and zipping through and around the rocky terrain. But as they flew, Sapphire began to calm herself and focus. Soon she was thinking before Sonic, maneuvering the plane near-perfectly before Sonic could tell her what she needed to do.

After a few minutes, they began to reach the end of the crevice, with an in climb leading out. Sapphire pulled up, almost touching the ground of the exit, and shot straight into the air, performing an aerial loop, and flying back down towards the ocean.

"Woo-hoo!" Sapphire screamed in excitement.

"Hey! Seems you're enjoying this!" Sonic replied. "You sure this your first time flying?"

"Yes. I've... I've never felt so... ALIVE!"

"Heh... this is the life," Sonic exclaimed.

Sapphire giggled, and then performed a proper barrel roll, spiraling upside down, and then flipping back down, letting the wings skim the top of the ocean as they flew over it.

"That was pretty good," Sonic said.

"Th-thanks..." Sapphire replied. She closed her eyes, and don't a deep breath. She may have felt scared at first, but now she felt confident in her skills. She felt like she could do anything. She-

"Uh, Sapphire?" Sonic said nervously.

Sapphire looked up at him. "Yeah."

"Pull up! We're about to-"

Sapphire looked forward, and she quickly saw the problem. She quickly pulled up, and barely scraped off the rock they almost hit.

"Okay. I think we should head back now," Sonic said after a few seconds of silence.

"Yes," Sapphire replied flatly.

* * *

As the plane landed back on Tails' runway, Sonic's foxy pal was there waiting, bringing them in.

"Geez, you guys are crazy," Tails said. "I was tracking your movements on my device. I saw all the crazy stuff you did. I was almost ready to take over, but Sonic sent a signal NOT to."

"I just felt like she had it. We agreed just in case-"

"You guys almost flew straight into a rock! In fact, I almost took control until Sapphire pulled up herself." Tails turned to Sapphire. "You could've pulled up higher, by the way."

"Sorry, I-" Sapphire stared to say.

"No need to apologize. I'm glad you’re okay," Tails responded, "And... don't worry about the scraped bottom. Sonic will pay for that, right?"

"I guess I deserve that one," Sonic replied. "Yeah, I'll pay up."

"Were all those crazy stunts your idea?"

"Well partially. Saph took over after a bit. She's a natural, I've got to say."

"Well, I was... just freaked out," Sapphire replied, "but I figured it out how to do it. And I think I got overconfident."

She took a deep breath. "I think, for now, I should stay on the ground."

Sonic and Tails looked at each other, then turned back to Sapphire. "Yes."

After that, the three of them went about their business for the day. In the following days, Sonic began talking about other adventures he could take Sapphire on, hopefully not something as dangerous. While she considered it, she was happy to stay where she was, and just enjoy the quiet days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if I can't say much about this. I just don't remember what I was thinking of working on this. It took a long time to finish, too. I guess I just wanted something with Sapphire trying out Sonic's plane.


	9. Hardlight Rope

“...Okay, now adjust the magnetic field.”

Careful hands began work on the device, as they readjusted the focusing of the beam.

Sapphire wanted to do some more work on her hardlight prototype, to see if she could improve it, and try to find other ways it can be used. She wanted to start advancing with her own technology skills.

Tails has been helping her improve, showing her how to build her tech with properly machined parts instead of scraps, improving the power stability and battery life of the device.

After the adjustments, the pair of mobians stepped back, and raised their welding masks.

“Okay, ready for the next test?” Tails asked.

“What test was this, again?” Sapphire responded. “Test number 87, right?”

“Well, if you want things work the way you intend them to, it usually takes several attempts. The more complicated the concept, the more tests needed.”

“Yeah, I know...” Sapphire said. She’s been through this before. She had to go through when she initially tested her hardlight tech. It wasn’t unique, but it was she had started with, all on her own. And now she was going through it again. She didn’t mind, she enjoyed it, but it was exhausting at times, and at other times, frustrating.

Tails tapped few things on his computing device, the Miles Electronic, a large yellow tablet device, and used its remote controls to darken the room so they could better see the focused light. Sapphire picked up a separate remote control, and began fiddling with the controls.

As the device powered up, they watched closely as the ends of the beam began to close into each other, separating from the machines channeling the beam.

“Yes...” Sapphire said softly, before getting excited. “Yes, I did it! I was able to do something new with my hardlight tech!”

“Cool,” Tails replied, “so, do you know what you’re going to use it for?”

“Oh... I-I don’t- um...”

“Don’t worry about it, Saph. I’m just asking. Often times, you create something just for the sake of it, and figure out what you can use it for later. I’m sure you’ll find some use for this.”

“Th-thanks...”

“And think about exactly what you accomplished here. You were able to create a means to not just to create focused beams of light into a safe, solid-state, but you’ve begun the process of shaping it into what you want.”

“...Yeah. I should keep going!” Sapphire exclaimed. She recorded the settings for the successful test, and began messing with the devices again. “If I can find the focused adjustment, I might be able to change what shapes I could make.”

“Woah, now, don’t get too excited. You might... oh boy...” Tails tried to stop Sapphire, but she was already working on her tech, too focused to pay attention to Tails.

 _Maybe try turning off the machine before messing with it,_ he thought.

Sapphire began changing the magnetic field’s focusing prisms, trying to find the primary variable, so she could effectively manipulate the field. The beam ended up stretching back to the focusing devices, and then began to grow brighter. Dangerously bright.

Sapphire stopped as she began to see the beam growing brighter. “Uh oh. Uh...”

“Sapphire, slow down! It’s going to go critical if you keep going!” Tails warned.

“Yeah, it might be doing that already be doing that... Can you help me?”

“Don’t worry,” Tails grabbed his Miles Electronic, and checked the levels. “Okay, it isn’t critical yet. Just start lowering the levels, slowly, don’t overpower it.”

“R-right,” Sapphire began to do so, starting with the first variable. Soon, the beam began to dim, and she began to lower the second variable to make sure she was still lowering it to safe levels. But then something interesting happened... the beam began to extend and lax.

“Huh?” Sapphire left her position and approached the beam, now fallen to the floor. She knelt down to check it.

“Sapphire, be careful,” Tails told her.

Sapphire slowly tried to pick up the lax beam, careful not to burn herself, in case the field weakened enough to make the beam dangerous. But that wasn’t the case, as she was able to lift it up without any harm to herself.

“It’s... it’s like a rope,” she said.

“Huh... Interesting,” Tails replied. “I don’t like how we got here, but this is a pretty awesome result.”

“...Sorry, Tails. I’ll be more careful next time! I didn’t want to cause-”

“It’s okay,” Tails interrupted, “just be more careful next. I know your adopted brother is very fast, but this is complicated and sometimes dangerous work. You need to take it slow and think these things through.”

“Yeah...” Sapphire took a closer look at her light rope, and then at the channeling devices making it. “You know, this looks kind of like... hm...”

“You come up with something, Saph?” Tails asked.

“Yeah, a bit of an... entertaining idea. But I need to make some changes. Change the shape of the machine to be more compact, and cap the interiors.”

“So add the shell, and make it portable. That will take some work. Not mention testing to make sure the beam is strong, if that’s how you want it to be.”

“How long do you think it would take?”

“Given how smart you are, as long you do anything reckless again, and with me helping a bit... a few days, maybe. But you’re in charge of the project. You’ve got to learn how to do these things by yourself at some point, right?”

Sapphire nodded in agreement, understanding what he said. But she was more excited to make something fun for her friends to do.

* * *

Amy, Cream, and Cheese were heading over to Tails’ workshop, after Sapphire had called them, saying they should come over. She wanted to show them something.

As they approached the workshop, they Sapphire waiting for them, hiding something behind her back.

“Sapphire!” Cream called out as she began running up to her, Cheese quickly following behind.

“Cream! Amy! You came!” Sapphire responded.

“You wanted to show us something?” Asked Amy, catching up to Cream.

“Look!” Sapphire pulled the item behind into view. It was a cylindrical device, which seemed to be designed to split into two, with rubber grips, and dim blue rings around the edges of the cap-ends.

Amy, unimpressed, said, “so, you made a metal rod? Is it for you’re shower curtain?”

“Amy, be nice,” Cream told her. “That’s a very nice thing you’ve made, Saph. What does it do?”

“Well, I when running an experiment of sorts with Tails, and we ran into this interesting development,” Sapphire explained, “I thought it would make for a good time, so...”

Sapphire grabbed both ends, and twisted the device. It began to softly hum, and the rings on the ends lit up. She then separated the two parts, and beam of light connecting the separated parts.

Sapphire then hit a button, and the beam extended, and it fell to the ground like a rope.

“Woah, what!? That beam-“ Amy started.

“That’s really cool!” Cream cut in.

“This is the latest development in my hardlight tech,” Sapphire explained, “I was able to create beam-rope, so I thought I’d turn it into a jump rope!

“That- that can’t be safe,” Amy replied. “I mean, touching that beam-”

“Oh, it’s completely safe,” Sapphire said. “I TRIPLE-checked the magnetic field that holds the beam together. Touching it can’t hurt you. Go on, pick it up!”

Amy and Cream approached Sapphire and her laser jump rope, nervously staring at it. But it was Cheese who bravely flew down, and picked up the hardlight rope. He used his little nub arms, grasped the beam, lifted it into the air...

...And he was completely fine.

“Cheese, does it hurt?” Cream asked.

“Chao, chao,” he replied, holding the beam above him.

“Wow, that actually is really cool,” Amy said, as she held her hand out, and Cheese dropped the beam into her hand. It didn’t even light her glove on fire. “Sorry for doubting you before. Still, did you really just make an overly advanced device for something as simple as jump roping?”

Sapphire, running on a rush of her own success, felt her confidence break a little. “Well, you see, I- I thought it would be fun... And I wanted to- um.”

“Sapphire, please don’t be upset,” Cream said, trying to ease Sapphire’s feelings, “we’d love to play jump rope with you and your new toy!”

“...It’s not really a toy...” Sapphire said quietly.

“We’ll play with her, won’t we Amy?”

“Well, yeah, of course,” Amy replied. “I didn’t mean to say that your invention was bad. I’m just wondering why. But I’ll play. Let me see one of those ends.”

“O-oh, okay,” Sapphire handed Amy one end, and then they were led into the nearby field.

“Okay, Cream, do you want to start first?” Amy asked.

“Of course, come on Cheese!” Cream responded.

Amy and Sapphire began swinging the rope, and Cream jumped in, jumping in time with the laser rope. As Amy and Saph began counting her jumps, and soon sped up, Cream began to flap her ears, seeming to hover a bit. And Cheese just flew by her, trying to mock jumping

She hit the rope at a score of 37 jumps. Cream stepped out of the way, panting. “That was fun... hah... This is the best thing... you’ve done so far...”

“Yeah... thanks,” Sapphire replied. “Um, can I ask... you were flapping your ears, and doing that, you seemed to hover in the air... How?”

“Oh...” Cream caught her breath. “I can use them to fly, kind of like Mr. Tails does with his tails.” She demonstrated by flapping her ears again, and taking to the skies.

“So, that means you cheated, then,” Amy joked.

“Hey! I only used them to stay in the air for a little bit!”

“Oh, i-it’s fine, Cream,” Sapphire replied. “Cheese was flying to, and we let him keep going. Right, Amy...”

“Oh, of course,” Amy responded. “So, Cream, want to take the rope. I want a go next.”

Amy and Cream traded places, and they began swinging the rope for her. Amy proved to be quite agile, keeping them on their toes, or more accurately, Amy kept off of hers. By the time Amy got caught by the rope, she had managed 52 jumps with breaking a sweat.

“Woah, that was awesome,” Sapphire said. “You so good.”

“Well, I am a pretty athletic girl, just so you know,” she replied.

“Because of chasing Sonic, I’m sure,” Cream quietly mocked.

“What was that!?”

“Nothing! Hey, Sapphire, it’s your turn!”

“O-oh, yeah, I’ll try,” Sapphire responded.

Sapphire handed Amy her end, and motioned to get in position and start swinging, keeping Amy from getting mad.

Sapphire began jumping... and lost after nine jumps, tripping on the beam-rope.

“Oh... I didn’t even get into double digits...” she responded as she sat down on the ground.

“Yeah, after years of going on adventures, and fighting Eggman, you become pretty agile,” Amy told her. “You’re just not used to that much physical activity.”

“Well, I guess. I used to run a lot when I was younger, but not so much now. I’m not very active.”

“So, maybe you should get more active,” a new voice spoke in.

Looking over, there was Sonic, walking up to the girls, while commenting on what they were talking about.

“Sonic, you’re here!” Amy exclaimed. “I’m so happy you came to see me!”

“Nah, I just got back from a run,” Sonic replied. Ignoring Amy’s pouting, he took a look at Sapphire's new device. “So, is this the thing you and Tails have been working on?”

“Y-yes, this is a hardlight jump rope,” Sapphire explained. “You see, it’s light focused through prisms, with a magnetic field holding it together. It’s quite an adva-“

“Calm down, Saph,” Sonic stopped her. “No need to explain how it works. Now, if this is a jump rope... care if I have a try?

“Yes, of course! Amy, would you help me?” Sapphire asked her.

“Yes, anything for my darling Sonic!” she excitedly replied.

Sonic rolled his eyes as everyone got in position.

Once they began, it wasn’t long before Sonic outshone them all. He quickly began performing flips and tricks, push of his hands as well as feet to jump off the ground, even occasionally spinning in the air to get two, one time three “jumps” without even touching the ground.

They began to lose count around 150, maybe 160 jumps. And they didn’t even stop because Sonic got caught by the rope. Sapphire simply grew tired, and dropped her end of the rope. And even as the rope fell lax, Sonic simply backflipped out of the way, just barely, yet expertly, missing the falling beam, and making a perfect three-point landing a few feet away.

“Woah... I... I can’t... wow...” Sapphire panted.

“That was quite the... workout,” Amy said.

“I lost count,” Cream replied.

“I think... it was... over two... two hundred jumps...?” Sapphire guessed.

“Nope,” Sonic told them. “Good guess, but not even close.”

“What!” all the girls said at once.

Sonic gave his signature finger wag. “317.”

“Over 300 jumps!” Sapphire cried out. “That’s incredible!”

“Well, I’m just that awesome.”

“Yeah, you really are...”

Sonic picked up the dropped end of the hardlight jump rope, and handed it back to Sapphire. Amy also gave her the other end, and Saph put the two parts back together, shutting off the device.

“Sapphire, that was so fun!” Cream said. “We should do it again, sometime.”

“Yeah, did you make any other fun things, we’d love to try them out!” Amy said.

Sapphire shook her head, as Tails come out and waved to them. “Sonic, welcome back! I got some snacks for you guys.”

“All right! Come on, guys, let’s go inside,” Sonic said.

Everyone nodded, and followed him inside for some food.

Now, as far as Sapphire was concerned, in regards to her hardlight rope... The project was a success!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is a little embarrassing... I was saying I was going to write a new chapter for both my stories once I finished the cover arts for them. But when I was checking my files, preparing to make a new document for Sapphire the Hedgehog... I found that I already had an unpublished chapter. I usually wait a week before reviewing a new chapter and then uploading it, so I could look at it with a clear mind, but it seems I forgot about this one. In fact, it was three months since the first draft was finished. I just simply decided to place this as the new chapter to go with cover art, but dang, deep down, I think I felt I already had uploaded this chapter. Good thing I found it.
> 
> Since it's been so long, I don't remember my thought process for this. But, I do know that this was a planned chapter, to start leading into the creation of Sapphire hardlight bow, the weapon she'll eventually build for herself. I also don't remember planning to add Sonic in this chapter, but it seems I did, so I must have thought it was a good idea, and well... It still was a good idea.


	10. Baseball Game

It was early morning, and Sonic was running around Central City and Station Square at the speed of sound, getting in a good morning run.

After dropping by a hot dog cart, and buying a couple of chili dogs, his favorite food, he ran up the sides of the city's scapers, leaping from one to another, before stopping on top of a roof, sitting on the edge as he began to enjoy his impromptu breakfast.

Looking down at the skyline, Sonic pointed his finger out, and cheekily said, "yeah, now this is happening."

"Words can not begin to describe for infuriatingly annoying you are," someone spoke behind him.

Looking behind him, Sonic found Shadow standing behind him, arms crossed.

"Hey, Shadow. Fancy seeing you here. ...You're brooding as ever it seems," Sonic said to his black and red look-a-like.

Shadow just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "May I join you?"

"Uh, sure. Always love having a friend join me!"

Shadow walked up and sat by his blue rival, staring out beyond the horizon.

"Hey, I've got an extra chili dog. Want it?" Sonic said, offering his second dog to Shadow.

Shadow simply nodded, and grabbed the offered food, taking a good bite out of it.

"So, what's up?" Sonic asked. "You seem kind of..."

"I'm fine," Shadow replied, "it's just..." he sighed, "you know, as much as you irritate me, you know that I respect you, right?"

"Well, yeah, kind of figured. What, did you want to be friends?"

"Not really, but... I would like to become part of you're circle."

Sonic was expectedly confused. Why would Shadow, of all people, what to be a part of his "circle"? Shadow wasn't exactly the most outgoing person, even if he did have a few friends (though those friends were a treasure hunter/ thieving bat with lots of feminine charm, who somehow had a side job as a government agent, and an ex-Eggman E-series robot that was battle-crazy and practically a walking arsenal).

"Okay, Shadow, what do you want?" Sonic asked as-a-matter-factly.

Shadow was quiet for a moment, before saying, "Sapphire... you adopted her as your sister not too long ago, right?"

"Um, yeah. Yeah, I did. She was an orphan, and never had a family, so I took her in. What about it?"

"There's... there's something that... bothers me about her," Shadow said.

"What!?" Sonic exclaimed, appalled by the statement. "You don't think she's going cause the world to end, do you? I mean, I know I've dabbled in dangerous stuff like that before, like with Emerl, but Saph is just an ordinary, kind girl. She couldn't possibly be a part of something like that!"

"Idiot, I didn't mean it ANYTHING like that! She just... she reminds me of someone."

Sonic had a feeling about who he was talking about. Maria. Sapphire had told him that Shadow had called her "Maria," and Rouge mentioned that the two looked kind of similar, but not really.

"So, you want to get to know her, huh?" Sonic asked his rival.

"Yes... to put it simply," Shadow answered.

"Well, okay then. I could introduce you two properly, and I'm sure Saph would love to thank you for helping her before."

"Actually..." Shadow finished his chili dog, and then pulled out four strips of paper.

"Are those... tickets?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. I... just looked online for the closest big event, and there is a baseball game in a week. I don't know if she would like to go, if that's something she'd interested in, but if she wants to..."

"Yeah, I don't think she's a sports fan, but it's to hang out with me, and maybe Tails... she'll probably go."

"Good. I got four tickets. One for me, and then three for you, Sapphire, and Tails," Shadow explained, handing him three of the tickets. "It would help if you and Tails were there. I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea. That, and I'm worried that your sister will..."

"What, find you intimidating? Edgy? A complete 'bad boy'?" Sonic replied, starting to have fun with what he was saying.

"I just told you I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea!" Shadow exclaimed, irritated. "You really are annoying..."

"Aw, but we're still friends, right?"

"Hmph! Maybe."

"All right, welp..." Sonic finished his own chili dog, and put away his tickets. "I guess I'll see you in a week. I better go and let Tails and Saph know about this now. See ya!"

And with that, Sonic lept of the side, and dashed straight down the side of the building, before racing off towards the Mystic Ruins.

"See you then," Shadow quietly said, before yelling, "Chaos Control!" and disappearing in a flash of light.

* * *

"Yo, Tails! Saph!" Sonic called out to his housemates as he walked through the front door.

While Sapphire was getting used to Sonic's sudden arrivals, this outside caught her by surprise, causing her to drop the book she was reading. Tails was doing maintenance on his Tornado 2, but pushed himself out from underneath the plane on his roller, in response to his friend's arrival.

"Geese, Sonic, you really scared me," Sapphire said, picking up her book.

"Heh, sorry," Sonic replied. "So, guys, you would not believe who I just talked to."

"Knuckles?" Tails asked, as he flew (literally) onto his feet.

"No. Shadow!"

"...Okay, and this is surprising because?" Tails asked skeptically.

"Well, guess what he gave me!" Sonic pulled out three tickets.

"Um..." Sapphire just looked at them confused.

Tails walked over to Sonic to get a closer look at the tickets. "Are those... baseball tickets?"

"Yeah, crazy right?" Sonic responded. "Shadow apparently wants to join our 'circle,' so he got us tickets to the next game. In particular, he wants to get to know my little sis over here," he continued as he nodded to the hedgehog girl in question.

"H-he wants to get to know me!" Sapphire replied in shock. She remembered the last time she saw him, when he had saved her. He was really intimidating, but she remembered that warm feeling he gave her. And when she met Rouge, the mobian bat said she also knew him, and had mentioned that Sapphire had been bothering him for some reason.

"Yeah, I guess you're pretty popular now."

"I guess..." Sapphire responded meekly. While she liked having friends, she really didn't want all this attention.

"Well, these tickets are for me, and the two of you. I don't know if you're into sports, but-"

"Oh, baseball is a guilty pleasure of mine!" Tails interjected.

Sonic gave him a quizzical look. "Really!? We've been friends for a VERY long time, and I'm NOW just hearing that you like baseball!?" he exclaimed.

"Well, I've admittedly never gone to an actual game, but I'll watch them on the computer during my free time, and I'll listen to past games while working. You've just never really been around. And you know what, I'm surprised YOU don't like baseball more," Tails countered. "It seems like you're kind of sport, AND they have a team called the Blue Blurs, which was named in YOUR honor. In fact, they're going to be playing next week, probably for the game those tickets are for!"

Sonic took a look at them and nodded. "I've heard about the Blue Blurs, and sometimes, when I'm on a run, I'll drop by and watch a few of their games, though I'd sit on TOP of the stadium. I never have tickets. You should've told me you're a fan, I'd definitely would've taken out to a game!"

"Yeah, but you're always on the go, you know."

"Um," Sapphire spoke up, wanting to get her say in, "I'm not a really big fan of sports, but I'll go if it means doing something fun with you guys! ...That doesn't involve nearly crashing a plane!" she quickly added at the end.

"Okay, if everyone's on board, then next week, we're heading out to the ball game!" Sonic exclaimed.

* * *

The following week, the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Sapphire were arriving at the Diamond Stadium.

"Wow..." Sapphire gasped. "That's a really impressive stadium. I wonder how it's structure is made."

"Uh, yeah, that's an interesting thought..." Sonic said, a little baffled. This was the kind of thing he'd expect from Sapphire, but still...

Tails was just trying to contain his excitement, as he was going to his first game ever. He was even wearing his team's baseball cap, and wondering if he'd get to meet some of his favorite players.

As they approached the stadium, they saw their provider of tickets, Shadow.

"Hey, Shads!" Sonic called out.

"Don't call me that," Shadow replied, annoyed, as he was approached.

"H-hi, Shadow," Sapphire said meekly.

Shadow's slight anger disappeared as his attention turned to the yellow hedgehog. "Hello, Sapphire. Is... Amy treating you well?"

"Oh, yeah, she is. We're good friends now, but I don't want to see her hammer again."

"Yes, as long as you don't get on her bad side, she'll only use it to fight the doctor's mechs. And I would to never want to see you involved fighting him."

"The doctor? Do you mean Eggman?" Sapphire asked.

"He does," Tails explained, "Shadow may be an enemy of Eggman like us, but he does have some respect towards him. I think it's partially because Eggman's grandfather, Profesor Gerald Robotnik, created him."

"Cr-created?" Sapphire responded in shock. "Shadow, are you... um..." she couldn't finish her sentence.

But Shadow got the idea. "Yes, I was born artificially, but I'm still a mobian hedgehog, just like you. I'm just better than the rest of you," he finished smugly.

"Yeah, and you're also part alien," Sonic remarked.

Shadow glared at Sonic. Sapphire was just trying to process what she just heard. She remembered that he claimed to be "Ultimate Lifeform", but did that mean he was actually made that way?

"Hey, Saph, don't worry about it too much," Sonic told her, noticing her distress. "He may be cocky, and we might make fun of him for that, but he's an alright person."

Sapphire nodded, as Shadow rolled his eyes at Sonic. "We should get inside if we want to get good seats," the black hedgehog said.

Everyone was in agreement, and they began to make their way into the stadium. As they did, lots of people were gawking or pointing in their direction, which made Sapphire nervous.

Tails hung back with the girl when he noticed her discomfort. "Yeah, those people are probably fans of Sonic and Shadow, maybe even me. Just hang back, and let them deal with it."

As if on cue, some people approached them, exclaiming, "You're Sonic the Hedgehog! And Shadow! Can we have your autographs!"

The look-a-like hedgehogs looked at each other before turning back to there fans. "Sure!" Sonic said, excited to meet some fans, while Shadow just nodded in agreement.

As they were signing various apparel that the fans had on hand, one of them looked over and asked, "so, is that the girl you adopted as your sister?"

Sonic looked over to Sapphire and said, "yeah. But she's not a big fan of attention, so maybe..." but was ignored as several of the fans split off to see the yellow hedgehog.

Sapphire shrunk into her jacket as the overenthusiastic fans swarmed her.

"So, what's your name?"  
"What's it like to be Sonic's brother?"  
"Do you go on adventures with him?"

As she kept getting bombarded with questions, she started to freak out. She tried finding a way out, until a dark shadow fell over.

"Excuse me! If you stayed and listened, maybe you would have heard my associate saying that his sister wasn't comfortable with attention. And yet, here you are, bothering her anyways."

The fans backed away, and Sapphire looked up to see Shadow above her, with an intense look on his face, and protectively standing between her and the crazy fans.

"Now, I appreciate how much you adore and respect Sonic and I for who we are," Shadow continued, "but you shouldn't drag others in they don't want to. We are here to enjoy a game, just the same as you. Not to bother others. Agreed?"

The fans nodded in understanding and ran off.

Sonic walked over, and hung his arm over Shadow. "Nicely done, Shads."

Shadow just glared and push Sonic's arm off him. "Let's just go find our seats."

* * *

They managed to get seats close to the field. Sonic sat next to the aisle, next to him was Sapphire, then Shadow, and lastly Tails.

Sapphire was happy to be next to her brother, because with Shadow on her other side, she was nervous. He was intimidating, but that wasn't what was bothering her about the black and crimson hedgehog. She just didn't know what it was.

As they sat down, Sonic turned back towards a food vendor, and called out, "hey, can we get two chili dogs over here? And put the works on 'em!" Turning back to his friends, he asked, "anything you guys want?"

"Um, I'll take a hot dog, without no chili, please," Sapphire replied, "and maybe a soda. Oh, and see if they have any pizza slices. I love pizza!"

"I'll get a soda as well and a pretzel," Tails said.

"I'm fine," Shadow told them.

Sonic added those items to the order, and soon the game began. Tails watched with great earnest, while the rest of them just enjoyed the game.

As the game went on, Sapphire looked over at Shadow. Should she say something to him?

Gathering her courage, Sapphire said, "hey, Shadow?"

The black hedgehog looked over, "yes?"

"I... I wanted to thank you for saving me from those thugs when I first got here. Oh, and from those fans too, I guess, though they weren't as dangerous, of course."

"...You're welcome. I just want to make sure that people are safe and happy. You included," Shadow told her.

"So, um... you know I met Rouge a while ago, and she said she knew you."

Shadow nodded. "I should apologize, I should've told her that when I said 'Sapphire', it was the name of a person. Rouge is obsessed with jewels, so I must have been... awkward dealing with her."

"Oh, that's okay. Sonic handled that, sort of." Sapphire turned to her brother, who was paying attention to the game and his enjoying his chili dogs, of which he had already finished one of them. If was listening in on their conversation, he wasn't showing any signs of it. "He mostly made a fool of her."

"I see... Well in all fairness, she was the one that fooled herself. Sonic probably just took advantage of that for the sake of a joke."

"You'd really say that about a friend?"

"Well, it's not like I despise her. She's a good ally. But, I'm not... good with friendships."

"Oh..." Sapphire glanced down. "Anyways, I wanted to ask, she also mentioned that I bothered you some reason. And Sonic said you got us into this game to see me. Why is that? Is... is there something wrong with me?"

"No... nothings wrong... it's just..." Shadow fell silent.

"Does... does it have anything to with Maria?"

"Don't mention her name!" Shadow said angrily. He wasn't too loud, but it did freak Sapphire out. Other people around them looked over with looks of either annoyance or worry on their faces.

Sonic looked over, quickly saying, "yo, bro, calm down. No need to get angry. Or else they might throw you out. And you scared Saph, too!"

Shadow looked at the trembling girl in shame. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just... a sensitive topic for me," he said.

Then Shadow did the last thing anyone expected. He leaned over, and hugged Sapphire.

"I won't do it again, Ma- Sapphire," he told her.

 _He feels so warm,_ Sapphire thought.

Sonic whistled. "Wow, Shadow, feeling a little touchy there, huh?"

Shadow quickly snapped back. "Screw you."

"It's okay... thank you..." Sapphire said quietly, though nobody heard her over the roar of the cheering fans, as just then, an incredible play happened.

One of the players had managed to hit a home run, and as he took off running, the ball was sailing towards the stands.

Now, an event like this is fairly quick, so there isn't a whole lot of time to react. Well, except for the two hedgehogs sitting to the sides of Sapphire, that is.

While it was too fast for her to really take in, she found the two rivals looking over her at each other, with a competitive look in their eyes. Then, before she knew, the two of them were GONE, Sonic having run up on the seats and hopping from one to another, avoiding people's heads, while Shadow literally disappeared in a flash of light!

In an instant, Sonic had traversed the stands, leaping up towards the ball. But then Shadow appeared again, right next to Sonic, reaching for the ball himself...

...But rather than either of them catching the ball, the two hedgehogs collided into each other, and the ball bounced off of them. As they unceremoniously fell back into the stands, the ball sailed over to a certain someone...

Without even meaning to, the ball landed in Sapphire open hands. Sapphire had been so focused on the doppelgangers, that the ball freaked her out, and she nearly dropped it.

Once she had a good grasp of it again, she looked around, noticing all that everyone around her was staring at her in amazement.

"Wow, would you look at that folks!" the game's commentator's announced over the loudspeakers. "After a spectacular fail from our very own heroes, it seems that this little cutie hedgehog has caught the ball!"

Looking up, Sapphire saw that some unseen camera had zoomed in on her, showing the image of a flustered yellow hedgehog girl in a blue hoodie and dress holding the baseball, upon the jumbotron screen.

"Woah, good job, Saph!" Tails cheered, "nice catch!"

Sapphire began to shrink into her jacket as all this attention was placed on her. On the inside, she began to freak out as everyone began cheering on this unnamed girl.

Sapphire would've run off crying, if were not for the timely arrival of her brother, Sonic. He walked in to frame, giving a cheeky smile of embarrassment, waving at the camera, then waving them off, signaling to them that she didn't want attention.

Once the camera was off her, and the game continued, and Sonic, followed by Shadow, sat back down. "Geeze, that was embarrassing! And sorry you had all that attention on you. Didn't think YOU'D catch the ball," he said sheepishly.

"Uh, yeah. I wasn't planning on it either. It just fell in my hands," Sapphire replied.

"Huh..."

"You know guys, I'm surprised," Tails said, "you two usually have pretty good synergy in battle. And yet you two unceremoniously smacked into each other trying to catch a ball! That is something you two aren't going to live down for a while."

Sonic gave another sheepish smile, while Shadow looked away. "Wasn't like I was planning on running into him!" the black hedgehog replied.

"Wait 'til I tell Rouge!" Sonic said.

"You were the one who ran into me!"

Everyone just laughed at the angry hedgehog. He simply gave an unhappy grunt in response.

Once they calmed down, Sapphire took a good look at Shadow. _He's so nice..._ she thought, _he's not as scary as he seems. Maybe... I wonder..._

Shadow looked over at Sapphire, causing her to look away in embarrassment.

 _Why... do my cheeks feel so warm?_ she thought.

* * *

The rest of the game went on by without any more crazy events. At the end of it, the Blue Blurs won by a landslide.

"Yeah, just what I'd expect from a team named in my honor!" Sonic cheered.

"Go Blue Blurs!" Tails followed. Shadow just smiled, glad to see them so happy, while Sapphire hugged the enthusiastic Sonic.

Before they left, while they agreed the ball was Sapphires to keep, Tails convinced them to have Sonic go and get it signed by the player who hit it into the stands. A task that would normally only happen by chance, but for the speedy blue hedgehog, getting through the crowds was a breeze to him.

As they were leaving the stadium, they were ecstatic for the victory of their favorite team.

"Man, Shads, I'm so glad you got us these tickets," Sonic said, "I never hated this game, but I also never thought I'd enjoy baseball this much either. I can see why you like it so much, Tails!"

"Yeah, we should go to the next game!" the fox replied. "What about you, Saph?"

"Well, it's still not my favorite thing, but I'd love to come!" she replied.

"Yeah-ha-ha," Sonic exclaimed, patting her on the back.

Shadow turned to the group and said, "well, this is where I leave you guys."

"Hey, thanks again for the tickets. See you later, buddy!"

"I'm not you buddy," Shadow told his rival, before yelling out, "Chaos Control!" and once again, disappearing in flash.

"Yeah, we'll about that, Mr. 'I'll just teleport away now'," Sonic mocked.

"Bye Shadow," Sapphire said softly, even though he was already gone.

As they returned home, Sapphire couldn't get her mind off of Shadow. He may have seemed intimidating, but he was kind, strong, maybe a little mean at times, but he was always there to protect those who needed.

Sapphire looked away from her brother and her instructor, trying to hide a blush as she realized, _I think I like him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So (adding this to this story as well), I figured I should add my author's notes for these chapters, because I'm doing with my co-writer for my new Hyperdimension story, and on DeviantArt, where I originally posted these, that's basically what the descriptions were anyways. I'll be adding them over time on every chapter on my other stories, though slightly edited, since some of the info will be out of date. If you're new to the story, you've probably already seen them, so this wouldn't matter to you.
> 
> So, let me start here, yes, I did make that extremely cheesy reference to Sonic Adventure DX's opening scene. It just felt right to put it there. And besides, SA1 is my favorite Sonic game (alongside Sonic Mania) due to my childhood nostalgia for it, so I was happy to add this. Also, while it's not worded exactly the same, right at the beginning, I also referenced the first line of "Escape from the City", the song that plays for City Escape, the first stage of Sonic Adventure 2. So yes, I managed to reference the openings of both SA1 and SA2 in one fell swoop. Yes!
> 
> (As an interesting fact, while this doesn't show online, since I have to use the chosen online fonts, while writing these stories on Word, I use fonts from the games my stories are based on, in order to get myself in the theme and mood of the story. And for this story, I use SA2's cutscene subtitle text font, which is Comic Sans MS. So, I count that as an honorary third Sonic Adventure reference!)
> 
> As for this chapter, what I wanted was to bring Shadow in. He's supposed to be an important character in this story, but he's only had one major appearance, and one side appearance in Rouge's introduction story. I wanted to give him a bigger presence in the story, in particular, pushing Sapphire's connection to the black hedgehog, since it's important to the story.
> 
> And really quickly, when it comes to writing Shadow, while it's a little subtle in this chapter, I've realized the best way to write Shadow, as someone who wants to better write him based on his character from SA2, and a bit from Sonic Heroes. Realizing that in those games, he has something going on in both stories, which theoretically would affect how he acts from his normal character, and making a guess on how he should've acted after the fact if they didn't decide he needed to be overly edgy, Shadow... should be a tsundere. No really, he's not the friendliest character, but does care for people, and his best portrayals are not an edgy character, tsundere made the most sense. Not 100% tsundere, to be clear, but he should definitely be a tsundere.
> 
> Now, getting back on track, in order to bring this chapter together, I thought of baseball. Well, to be more specific, I remembered that one episode of Sonic X, where everyone was playing baseball for a Chaos Emerald (I believe it was Episode 10, "Unfair Ball"). In fact, the stadium is named after the stadium in the show, Diamond Stadium, and the reason I gave Tails a love of baseball is because that episode focused on him. I guess means I can Sonic X to the reference list this story.
> 
> Now, for the next story I write, it will be one I've been wanting to write for a while, and it will introduce someone who is long overdue to join the greater story. So, look forward to that.


	11. Snowboarding Angels

Above the clouds, a blue biplane soared, in transit to another adventure. One of the passengers, Sapphire, looked down at the world below. She wasn't afraid of heights, but her prior experience with flying hadn't exactly left feeling comfortable in the air.

Of course, it was Tails who piloting the Tordano 2, while Sapphire was sitting behind him, and Sonic, once again, standing the top wing of the plane.

Sonic had another exciting "adventure" he wanted to take Sapphire on. This time, he wanted to take her snowboarding. It sounded simple, much better than flying a plane. But Sapphire was still nervous, of course, despite having agreed to this.

"Sonic, ...I'm having second thoughts," she told her brother.

"Hey, come on, it'll be great. Trust me, and believe in yourself," the blue hedgehog replied.

"But, you know people get hurt doing this," Sapphire argued.

"Don't worry, I'll be there to show you the ropes. And besides, we're going to the best slopes in the world."

"And where is that?"

"Right there, in the distance!" Sonic exclaimed, pointing over the clouds.

Off in the distance, was a large mass of rock... that was just floating in the air, several hundred feet above the ground. On the top, vast amounts of plant life spread across the airborne grounds, with lush jungles and forests. Old ruins dotted the landscape, and near the back, a range of tall, snow-capped mountains stood.

"A sky island..." Sapphire said in awe. "How is it float- What is that place!?"

"That... is Angel Island," Sonic told her.

"Angel Island... I've heard stories of this place, but I was never sure if it was real..."

"Well, here it is. The legendary island in the sky!"

"...But it's not the only 'island in the sky' we've been to," Tails commented. "By the way, you sure Knuckles won't be mad if we do this here? Without his knowledge?"

"'Course not. He's gotta know that his slopes are the absolute best!" Sonic replied.

"Right..."

Tails flew the Tornado 2 up to the tallest peak. Once they landed, Sonic lept off the top wing, and began rummaging in the storage unit of the plane, before pulling out a pair of snowboards.

Tails and Sapphire hopped out. "I'm really not sure about this," Sapphire said, looking down at the snowy slopes. For the snowy weather, she was wearing blue earmuffs, a large blue coat, dark snow pants, and blue and black boots.

"Yep, it's another crazy stunt from Sonic, eh?" Tails replied.

"Hey!" Sonic called out. "I just want my sis to experience the thrills of life."

"Yeah, but I'm not as much of an adventure as you are," Sapphire argued.

"That's why I'm doing smaller things, like this. Get you comfortable with the idea," Sonic said, before rushing off to a position to start boarding.

"Don't worry, I made sure to land near one of the safer slopes I could find," Tails told Sapphire. "And I'll fly overhead to catch you in case something goes wrong."

"Okay..." Sapphire said.

Sapphire walked over to Sonic, who offered her one of his snowboards. This one was blue with yellow lines, while Sonic's was simple red. "You ready?"

"Um... maybe...?" Sapphire replied. "Give me a minute..."

"Okay."

Sapphire took a deep breath... breath out... another deep breath... breath out... in... out... in... out...

"So..." Sonic said, getting a little impatient. "Do you want me to help you get set up?"

"Sure..." Sapphire said. She was kind of glad Sonic asked that, because she wasn't sure if she could hype herself to do this if her thoughts weren't interrupted.

Sonic helped her get strapped onto her board, and showed her how to balance on it, before getting himself ready.

"Alright, just stick with me," Sonic told her. "Keep your stance, and lean side-to-side to turn. Just remember to be brave, and you'll be fine."

 _Be brave... right,_ Sapphire thought. She wasn't very brave. It was the main reason she didn't think she could be an adventurer.

...But being with Sonic... his confidence, his care-free nature, his kindness... it was almost contagious. She was scared, but he made her more confident in facing those fears.

Staring down the slopes, she took one more deep breath. Sonic rolled his eyes, and then pushed Sapphire's back, causing her to freak out as she began sliding down.

"W-woah!"

"You got this!" Sonic called out as he kicked off the ground, and followed after her, while Tails simply face-palmed before flying after them.

Sapphire quickly started losing her balance, and soon after, she finally fell over. Luckily, as a hedgehog, she was able to detach from the board and roll into a ball.

Which of course, led her to being rolled into a snowball before hitting a wall.

Sonic caught up to her as she was digging herself out of the snow.

"Whooh! Th-that's cold..." Sapphire said.

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have pushed you," Sonic replied. "I thought that would help, guess not."

"Th-that's okay." Sapphire shook all the snow off her, and looked at Sonic, before deciding, "I... I want to try again."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay, let's try again."

Tails lifted her back to the top, while Sonic grabbed her board. They strapped back up, and Sonic held out his hand. "Come on, I'll hold you up, and help you keep your balance, 'kay?"

"Oh, okay," Sapphire said, grabbing his hand.

Sonic started sliding down, pulling Sapphire along with him. Sonic began weaving down the slopes, Sapphire doing her best to keep her balance as she was pulled behind.

"You're doing great!" Sonic told her.

"Y- Yeah!" Sapphire replied.

"Okay, think you can handle yourself from here?"

"Uh- um, sure."

"Okay, you ready? Here we go!" Sonic said as he pulled Sapphire in front of him, then let go, speeding her down the hill as Sapphire tried to ride the slopes on her own.

She was able to keep her balance for a bit, until she nearly fell again, though this time, Tails caught her.

"Hey, you were pretty good that time," Tails said.

"Thanks," Sapphire said. "...I want to try again, until I get this right."

"You sure..."

Sapphire nodded.

"Okay..." turning his attention to Sonic, Tails called out, "hey, Sonic, she wants to go again!"

Sonic gave thumps up as he came to a stop.

Sapphire tried, again and again, trying to get the hang of snowboarding. And slowly, but surely, she did. It wasn't great, but eventually, she got her balance.

Reaching the bottom of the first slope for the first time, Sapphire proudly stood, Sonic sliding in by her.

"Nice job, Saph," Sonic told his sister.

"Yes... I did it. WOO-HOO!" Sapphire cheered with a loud echo.

Which, unfortunately, was the last thing they needed at that moment.

Tails, who was again, flying above them, was going to land to congratulate Sapphire, but then he noticed some snow falling off the cliffsides. Eyes widening, he shouted down to them, "Guys, avalanche!"

The two hedgehogs look up to Tails, before Sonic's gaze lowered to the snow starting to fall down. A large amount of snow.

"We gotta go!" he said, pulling Sapphire away.

"But Tails could-" she started, before Sonic interrupted her.

"No time!" Sonic grabbed his board. Sapphire was still strapped to her board, so she simply dragged along, sliding behind Sonic as he stepped on his board and boarded down the next slopes as the snow toppled down into a large wave of white doom.

Sapphire wasn't exactly happy to be chased by an avalanche, but looking at Sonic, his face of shock and worry had been replaced by one of glee. An extremely dangerous situation, and yet, he was enjoying it.

 _He loves seeking adventure, ...and danger,_ Sapphire thought, _that's why I always looked up to him, though._

As they rode down, Sonic pointed over to one of the rocky walls. "Look, a cavern!" Sure enough, there was an open cavern in the side.

Sonic leaned to the left, guiding the two of them into the cavern, with the snow barely behind them. Sapphire squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the worst, until there was nothing but cold and darkness.

* * *

"Hey, Saph."

No response.

"Sapphire...?"

Still no response.

"We're good now. Come on, say something."

"It's over?" a soft, female voice replied, "we're safe?"

"Yeah. ...But, the entrance is blocked. The snow is packed pretty tightly. I tried digging through it, but I nearly got myself stuck instead."

"Oh." At this moment, the second of the two, Sapphire, began to process her surroundings. Or rather, the fact she couldn't see them. It was dark. Pitch-black dark. She couldn't see her own hand, much less what was in front of her, if anything.

Sapphire curled up into a ball, while Sonic, who also couldn't see anything, made that painful aware. "Man, I can't see anything. I wish I had a torch or something. That be so helpful right about now, right, Saph?"

Sapphire didn't reply.

"Oh, come. Are you mad at me?" he asked. "Hey, sorry if you feel I forced you into this. But hey, it was pretty exciting, you got to admit!"

Still no response.

"Okay, come on. We gotta find a way out of here, Saph."

"I... I can't... it's... it's..." Sapphire whimpered.

"Saph? You okay?"

"NO!" she shouted. "I can't stand the dark! I don't want to go through there if I can't see anything!"

"Wait, you're afraid of the dark?" Sonic asked softly.

Sapphire started crying softly.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Sonic said, as he knelt down by the girl. He carefully wrapped his arm around her, trying to comfort. "I'm here, you're not alone."

Sapphire clutched her brother. "I'm sorry... I'm trying to be the best sister can... but I'm not even strong enough to face my fears."

"Hey, you did great with the snow-boarding!"

"But I was... you're so strong, and I want to be strong, too, because of you."

Sonic was silent for a bit, as he took that in. "I guess I'm not being a good brother. I might be a little too pushy with you joining me on these little escapades."

"No, I was the one who wanted to-"

"Because I'm someone to look up to," Sonic interjected. "But you don't need to be like me. I shouldn't have been so... insistent on making you come with me. You're different from me. You have your own strengths and weaknesses. You shouldn't try to do what I do just because I want you to try it, and I shouldn't ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"It's okay... Sonic, you're a great brother. And as your sister, I love you."

"Heh, thanks, sis." Sonic got up, and grabbed Sapphire's hand. "Come on, get up. I'll help lead you through the dark."

"But... you don't know where you're going either," she replied, though she got up anyway.

"It's my fault we're in this situation., so I'll get us out. Now, come on."

Sonic began to lead Sapphire into further into the dark cavern, with the latter stay close to her brother. Sonic moved slowly, keeping his hand on the wall to make sure they didn't run into anything.

It wasn't long before they found a light source, an orange glow around the corner. Sapphire was excited, being terrified of the darkness, and wanted to get into the light, so to speak.

"Sonic, look, light!" she dashed off, leaving Sonic behind her. She rounded that corner...

And found herself smacking into a fist.

"Saph!" Sonic cried out, running after her.

Sapphire had a bump on her head, and was a little dazed, but was alright, already trying to get up. Sonic turned to see what hit her, starting to shout, "okay, you're going to get... uh, Knuckles?"

"Sonic!?" a deep gruff voice replied. "What the heck are you doing here!? Who is this!?"

Sapphire sat up, and found herself looking at a mobian, a species she'd never seen before. He had red fur with dreadlock-like spines, and a crooked tail, along with purple eyes and a white crescent mark on his chest. He wore white mittens over large fists with two spikes on his knuckles for each hand, and red and yellow shoes with green cuffs and grey plates with six bolts on each one (which reminded Sapphire of toys that she used to play with at her old orphanage). He was holding up a fire-lit torch.

"Wha..." Sapphire started, still trying to regain her focus, "who..."

"Is there I reason you hit my sister?" Sonic said, his anger rising back up.

"Sister!?" The red mobian replied. "How was I supposed to know this was your sister!? She tried attacking me!?"

"I wha..." Sapphire replied, still in a daze.

"She's afraid of the dark, and you have light. And you really shouldn't hit random people!" Sonic countered.

"I am the guardian of this island! I'm supposed to deal with intruders, like HER!" the red mobian said, pointing to Sapphire, then to Sonic. "YOU shouldn't be here either!"

"Oh, yeah! Wanna go?" Sonic said smugly. "You know you can't beat me!"

"Bring it on!"

This was quickly going from a shouting match to a rivalry fight, and now that Sapphire had (mostly) regained focus, she didn't want to see this happen. "STOP!"

The two mobians stopped and looked over to Sapphire as she stood up, almost stumbling back down.

"Stop! Please don't fight! I don't want to see any fighting..." she started to tear up.

The red mobian looked to Sonic. "What's her deal?"

"Well... perhaps she's right, Knux," Sonic told him.

"Fine," the red mobian turned to Sapphire. "What's your name?"

"It's... Sapphire," she replied shyly.

"Alright, my name's Knuckles," the red mobian told her, raising his hand. "Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of Angel Island."

"Oh, okay..." Sapphire said, as she shook Knuckles' hand. "Echidna, huh. I've never met an echidna before."

"Yeah..." both Sonic and Knuckles replied.

"What?"

"I'm... one of the last of my kind," Knuckles explained.

"Oh... oh, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay."

"So... you're the guardian of this island?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes, which brings us back to my first question. Why are you two here, especially in these caves!?"

"Well, me and Saph here come to do some boarding in Ice Cap..." Sonic explained.

"You came here for SNOWBOARDING!" Knuckles responded, once again angry. "This is a sacred island. You can't just come here to snowboard!"

"Hey, you've got a carnival here!" Sonic countered.

"Eggman was the one who put it there!"

"Yeah, when you decided to trust him, and he stole the Master Emerald!"

"STOP!" Sapphire interjected. "Please, stop!"

"Sorry..." the boys replied.

"Thank you... So, um... Knuckles, can you help us?" Sapphire asked.

"Yeah?"

"We're down here because when we were boarding, an avalanche started, and we got stuck because the snow blocked the entrance. Do you know a way out?"

"Well," Knuckles said, with a smug expression, "this is my island, and I know it like the back off my hand. I know another way out. Or..." he pulled out a pair of metal, glove-like gauntlets, each with a pair of sharp, shovel-like blades, and put them on, the blades fitting right over his spiked hands. "...If it's just packed snow, with my Shovel Claws, I could dig right through it!"

"You can?"

"Have to give it to him, he's right," Sonic said. "I'd say we go with that second option. Tails is probably worrying about us on the other side, and we're not too far away."

"R-right, okay, Knuckles, let's do it!" Sapphire replied.

* * *

Tails was, of course, worried, and already trying to save his friends. Luckily for him, his Tornado 2 plane was designed to transform. Its second form, the Cyclone, was a combat walker. Flying the Cyclone down to where Sonic and Sapphire got trapped, Tails intended to use the walker's features to free them from the packed snow.

He started by performing a geological scan of the area, so he could make a plan on the best way to breakthrough. At least, he was trying to, but then the hardened snow wall started to break.

Looking up, Tails watched as the snow wall broke open, revealing a red echidna wearing metal digging gloves. Tails was happy to see his old friend, but was even happier to see the two figures who walked out behind him.

"Knuckles! Sonic! Sapphire!" Tails called out in joy and relief. "You guys are okay!"

"'Sup, bro!" Sonic replied. "Glad you're okay!"

"I'm okay!? I was worried you two got buried!"

"Don't worry, we're fine. Knux got us out."

Tails breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Knuckles, you really came through."

"You're welcome," he replied. "Now, I'll see you guys later. Got off my island."

"Wow, you're not beating around the bush, are ya, Knuckle Head," Sonic remarked.

"What did you just say!"

"We... should probably listen to him," Tails replied.

Sonic rolled his eyes while smiling, and hopped on the Cyclone.

Sapphire picked up the dropped boards in the cave, and walked up to Knuckles. "It was nice to meet you, Knuckles. Um... do you... do you mind if I come to visit? You know... just to hang out?"

Knuckles' eyes closed as he thought about, then sighed. "Sure, you can. Just let me know first before you try something like this again on MY island."

"Yes, of course!" Sapphire then walked over to the Cyclone, packed the boards into the vehicle, and climbed into the back seat.

"Sonic, that sister of yours, she's got a good head on her," Knuckles said. "You should take good care of her."

"Of course. Wouldn't have it any other way," Sonic replied.

Knuckles smiled. "Well, goodbye. And Sapphire, I know dealing with Sonic isn't easy, but he's a good guy. Trust him, and you can't go wrong."

Sapphire smiled and waved goodbye to the echidna, as Tails moved his vehicle into a better position where he could take off.

Once the plane was in the air, and the three mobians were flying away from Angel Island, Sapphire couldn't help but stare back at the island.

"I feel sorry for him," Sapphire said.

"Knuckles, why?" Sonic asked, once again, standing on the plane's top wing.

"He must be so alone there. Without anyone to keep him company."

"Well, Knuckles has a big job. He has to protect the Master Emerald, and that's a pretty important job," Tails explained.

"The Master Emerald... what is that?" Sapphire asked.

"It's this massive gem that sits on a shrine on the island," Sonic answered.

"It is the controller of the Chaos Emeralds," Tails added. "And it's power is the reason Angel Island floats in the air. Without it, the whole island will fall into the ocean."

"Oh... that does sound important," Sapphire said.

"Knuckles is a good guy, if a bit of a loner," Sonic said. "We bring him along in our adventures sometimes, and his strength is immensely useful, not to mention he's a fantastic friend to have on your team."

"So, you bring him along, like you did with me?"

"Yeah... like that..." Sonic replied cheekily.

"People follow Sonic," Tails said. "A friendly, free-spirited guy who protects the world, that's just what happens. Even people like Knuckles will join in when asked."

"Yeah, guess so," Sapphire replied.

The three laughed at that, as they flew home, ready to rest from another exciting day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, at long last, I have introduced Knuckles to this story. I could not really tell you why it took ELEVEN chapters to introduce one of the biggest characters in the Sonic series to this story. All I know is that I kept wanting to write other chapters before this, for various reasons.
> 
> Snowboarding in Angel Island's Ice Cap Zone was one of the earliest ideas I came up with for this story, and I knew it would be the best time to introduce Knuckles. I've been wanting to write this story for a while. And yes, this is exactly how I wanted to play out this whole time, save for one thing. This seemed like a good time for Sonic and Sapphire to have a heart to heart. Hopefully, from now on, Sonic will be a lot more lenient on what he wants to do with Sapphire.
> 
> I also found this to be a good time to bring up Sapphire's fear of the dark (to be specific, roaming around in the dark), and how she hates people fighting for no reason. She also feels sorry for Knuckles, who is all alone.
> 
> If you're wondering why I said the Knuckles is "one of the last of his kind", instead of "the last of his kind", like in the lore, ...it's because of Sonic Chronicles and Shade the Echidna. I don't know if I'm going to add those story elements to this story's background, but I do consider it canon. If you want a good explanation as to what I think happened after that cliff hanger, I saw theory (that makes a lot of sense to me) that Sonic Unleashed takes place right after. Firstly, they came out in the same year (2008), even if Unleashed came out first, and if you think about Unleashed's opening cutscene, where Sonic is assaulting Eggman's space fleet, it does look kind of like a natural follow up to Chronicles ending. What happened to Shade, I couldn't tell you, but she's probably around somewhere.
> 
> Anyways, for the next chapter, I plan to introduce even a lot of characters, with an interesting plot. But I'll need some time to plan it out. Look forward to it!


	12. The Black Gem Case #1

It was a calm morning. Sapphire was in her room, reading a book, while Tails was preparing for something he needed to do today.

"Hey, Sapphire, could you come here really quick!?" Tails called from the workshop area.

Sapphire put a bookmark in her reading material, and left her room to speak with her mentor. "Y-yeah, did you need something?"

"Not really, I just wanted to ask if you could come with me to Cream's place today?"

Sapphire blinked. She had no problem going to visit Cream and her family, but she did wonder why Tails wanted to go. "Okay... why?"

"There's something I have to go do, and I figured that you might want to watch," the twin-tailed fox replied. "You see, I don't know if you noticed last time you were there, but they have this robot, and-"

At that moment, Sonic came rushing in. "Yo, Tails!"

Sapphire jumped back a bit. "Sonic, can you please stop doing that?"

"Sorry, Saph, but this is important," Sonic replied quickly.

"You do seem a little rushed," Tails noted.

"Eggman's back!"

"...Right now!? Today was supposed to be Gemerl's monthly maintenance check-up," Tails replied.

"Oh, right..." Sonic replied. "Do you want me to go it alone this time?"

"I don't know, I suppose I could delay it until we're back-" Tails started before being interrupted.

"Could I do it?" Sapphire asked.

"Huh?" Tails replied, a little shocked.

"Well, Tails you wanted me to come with anyways, right?" Sapphire explained.

"So you could watch me work on robotic mechanics, and see what's it's like to work with them, but I didn't want you to actually work with them now. Robots are a lot more advanced than other machinery, and more difficult to work with. That, and Gemerl is a complicated machine, even for me. Honestly, I think you should wait until you're a little bit better-"

"Hey, Tails, if she wants to give it a try, let her," Sonic interjected. "She's smart, I'm sure she'll figure it out. And it would be a good way to learn, right?"

Sapphire was suddenly a lot less sure about this, but Tails thought it over, and said, "Okay... fine. I have records of my previous maintenance check-ups that you could use to help you, if you think you can do this. If you don't know what to do, don't worry about it. It's just a monthly check-up, not a huge upgrade or anything like that. If you miss something, I'll fix it next month. ...Or when I get back."

"You sure...?" Sapphire replied. "I'm not so sure anymore..."

"Hey, Saph," Sonic spoke up. "You can do it. I know you can do it, if you believe in yourself."

"Okay... yeah... I can do this! My first time working on a robot! I'm excited!"

"That's what I like to hear!"

"Okay, I'll call Vanilla and let her know what's happening, and I'll send you my notes, update files, and schematics for Gemerl," Tails said. "Fair warning, they're not... amazing. Gemerl was originally one of Eggman's robots, and his tech is notoriously weird. And not only that, he was based off of another very ancient, yet advanced robot. So I couldn't really make really great schematics without reverse engineering him, which... well, there's a good reason we didn't do that."

"Right, I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

Sapphire was on her way to Cream and Vanilla's house, carrying her toolbox in one hand, and her Miles Electric, which Tails gave her, in the other, using voice command to review Gemerl's schematics.

"Man, I should really talk to Tails about making a smaller version of this thing. It would so much more convenient. Maybe we could call the 'Miles Gear'," Sapphire said to herself while walking, looking up for a moment to make sure she wasn't about to run into anything, as she did occasionally.

She was trying to make sure she knew everything she could before arriving, and was hyping herself up for the monumental task ahead of her. Sure, it's was just a maintenance check, but from the sounds of it, this robot was incredibly important to the Rabbit family.

Looking up once again, Sapphire found that she had arrived at the Rabbit household. Smiling, she made her way to the front door and rung the doorbell.

After a minute, the door opened, revealing the tall rabbit mobian that Sapphire knew to be Vanilla.

"Ah, you're here," she greeted. "It's good to see you, Sapphire. Tails called me, said you coming to check up on Gemerl?"

"Yes... Um, I'm sorry, I didn't see him last time I was here," Sapphire replied.

"Oh, he was watching the house while we were gone. Please, come inside, and I'll introduce you."

Sapphire was led into the home, and guided over to the living room. There, Cream and Cheese were watching cartoons on a large TV, while another figure stood by them.

"Honey, Sapphire is here," Vanilla announced.

Cream looked over, and happily jumped and ran up to Sapphire. "You're here!"

Sapphire let Cream hug her, nervously returning it in her shy mannerisms.

"So, you're here to look at Gemerl?" Cream asked, as she looked up at the older, albeit short mobian, and then let go and backed off.

"U-um, yeah, I am," Sapphire replied.

"Yay! Hey, Gemerl, I want you to meet Sapphire!"

Cream led Sapphire to the other figure she saw before. He was a mobian-modeled, black-colored robot with some parts colored yellow. His metal face had a three-pronged horn-like part, shaped like an upside-down T, with an opened third eye in the middle, his normal two blue-eyes just below the horn's side-prongs, with red lining underneath. There were three circles on his chest, fin-like blades on his forearms, and his upper arms and legs were thin steel rods.

He looked really intimidating to Sapphire, but regardless of that, he approached her, and held out his hand. "Greetings. I am designated as 'Gemerl'. Pleased to meet you."

Sapphire gave a shy smile, and nervously shook his hand. "H-hi, there. I'm... Sapphire. I'm here to do your maintenance... In place of Tails! Sorry!" She said that last part quickly.

"I see. So Tails is busy at the moment?"

"Uh, w-well... yeah. He and Sonic had to leave... b-but I am his apprentice, so don't worry!"

"You seem nervous?"

"Saph is shy," Cream explained.

"And I think this is her first time doing maintenance on a robot," Vanilla added. "Though I'm sure this will be a good experience for her to take."

"Well, a friend of Tails and Sonic is a friend of mine," Gemerl said, "and they trust you to be able to run my maintenance, then so will I!"

That lifted Sapphire's spirits, have been given confidence from the very robot she was supposed to be working on. "Thanks. So, should we get started?"

* * *

Over the next few hours, Sapphire had begun working on Gemerl's check-up. Cream was in the room, continuing to watch her cartoons, while looking over occasionally to watch her friend work.

Right about now, Sapphire was finishing up with the hardware maintenance, while Tails' pre-made security software update was almost completed. It was difficult, but Sapphire loved it. Working with new technology, it was so fascinating for her.

"...And, done!" Sapphire said. She grabbed her Miles Electronic computing tablet, and hit the remote turn on to reboot Gemerl.

As Gemerl eyes flashed on, with him saying with his robotic voice, "powering on."

Waiting a short bit for Gemerl to finishing booting, Sapphire afterwards asked, "so, how do you feel?"

"I am a robot. I can't feel anything. But it appears that I am operating at optimal efficiency," Gemerl replied.

"Well, that's good," Sapphire replied, "I was worried I might have messed something up."

"I am not experiencing any flaws in my systems. All systems are running normally."

"Oh... good." Sapphire got up, and took a good look at Gemerl. "You're a really impressive robot. I mean, I haven't seen a ton of robots before, or any really," she said whispering that last part, "but you are definitely the coolest one I've met. Your AI is so impressive, and the technology you are made of is unlike anything I've ever seen!"

"Thank you, miss Sapphire," the black robot replied.

At that moment, Vanilla walked into the room, carrying a plate, and took a look at Sapphire's finished job. "So, I take it that you're all done?"

"Yes! It was very interesting examining your robot! Thank you for this opportunity!" Sapphire replied.

"Well, don't forget to thank Tails too, for allowing you to do this. He's the one who usually checks up on Gemerl. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. I knew you could do it." The tall rabbit mother lowered her plate. "I just finished making cookies. Would you like one?"

"Oh, sure," Sapphire said while grabbing a cookie. "Thanks. I didn't know you were making these."

"Huh? But you could smell them from here," Cream mentioned.

Sapphire just gave a small, nervous laugh. She was so focused on Gemerl while working on him, that she didn't notice. When it came to technology, she could become fixated on it, everything else got blotted out of her perception.

"Anyways, I assume that you are doing alright now, Gemerl? Nice and strong, I presume?" Vanilla asked the robot.

"Everything appears to be operating at maximum efficiency," he replied.

"Good, good."

"So you're happy with my work?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes, of course," Vanilla replied.

"Thanks. That means a lot to me. Not a lot of people really show interest in what I do, except for Tails, Sonic, and some of their other friends."

"Oh, Sapphire." Vanilla pulled Sapphire into a hug. "I know you must have felt so alone for much of you're life. If you ever wanted to find someone to talk to, I'm always here if you want to come by."

"Thank you..." Sapphire replied, small tears in her eyes. Besides Sonic, she never had anyone show her this much kindness.

"Anyways, Gemerl, since you're working alright, I wanted to ask if you and Cream could get some more groceries. We seem to be running low."

"Of course, ma'am. I will serve this purpose," Gemerl replied.

"Oh, I'm happy to help out, mama!" Cream jumped in.

Sapphire thought on this for a moment, and then asked, "You mind if I come along? I'd like to make sure that he is working properly."

"Of course, Saph! We'd love for you to come with us!"

Vanilla smiled and giggled, amused by the display. "Okay, just be sure to get everything we need, and of course, please be safe."

"Of course!" the two girls said that the same time, Gemerl simply standing by, waiting to begin this mission.

* * *

About an hour later, Sapphire, Cream, Cheese, and Gemerl were walking (or flying) back to Cream's home, taking back the groceries they just purchased for Vanilla and her family.

"So, from the looks of it, you're working just fine," Sapphire observed, seeing as Gemerl was near effortlessly carrying most of the groceries, including some of the more heavy ones.

"Thank you, miss Sapphire," he replied.

"Oh, I'm just so happy that you're working so well. That means my first time working on a real robot wasn't a huge failure."

"You shouldn't be so worried, Saph. Your work is amazing. I think you can do amazing things in the future!" Cream told her.

"Th-thanks..."

"'Saph?' This is a nickname for you, I assume?" Gemerl inquired.

"Uh, yeah, my brother calls me that a lot," Sapphire explained. "Um, do go by a nickname? Gem, maybe?"

Gemerl was silent as he contemplated the question, though with his robotic face unable to show emotion, Sapphire thought that he didn't like it.

"Sorry, I guess it sounds more like a girl's name-"

"No, it is fine. I have never been given a nickname, so I had to consider it. If you wish you to call me Gem, I'll allow it."

"Oh, thanks. ...So, um, Gem, do you mind if I ask... What kind of robot are you, or at least, what were you before?"

Gemerl was startled by this, but figured he owed her an explanation. "I am a replica of an ancient, weaponized, mechanical warrior known the gizoid. Apparently, the original gizoid I was based on was a close friend of Sonic's, but he had to be destroyed when he lost control due to Eggman's interference. Eggman made me afterward, based on the previous gizoid's model, and yet I also lost control and betrayed him, later being fixed and reprogramed by Tails."

"I... see." Sapphire was surprised to hear that Gemerl was intended to be a weapon, and was modeled off of another weapon. A very old weapon. _How ancient was this gizoid weapon?_ she thought, _I should ask Sonic about it, if he really did know the original one._

As they continued along, Gemerl suddenly stopped.

"Gemerl? What's wrong?" Cream asked, worried. Cheese flew by him, equally worried.

"I'm detecting an unknown presence," the robot replied with warning.

Looking around, they didn't see anything. There wasn't any else around, at least, that they could see. There was an alleyway by them, seeing as they were in a small city are near Cream's home, but it was empty, save for some large trash bin.

Sapphire becomes nervous. She wasn't a fighter. She heard that Cream had gone on adventures before, so maybe she knew how to fight. Gemerl just said he was made as a weapon, and when working on him, she saw some of his built weaponry, such as missile launchers in his arms. So she could depend on him, right?

At that moment, there was the sound of movement behind them. Gemerl moved to act against this disturbance...

But when a loud bang and burst of energy. It merely put Sapphire and Cream's fur on end, when it passed over the black robot, he shut down and fell over.

"GEM!" Sapphire cried he ran over to him, but then a small object was tossed on the ground by them, which then began spewing some sort of gas.

The two mobians and the Chao tried to cover their mouths, but unfortunately, they breathed in some of it, and they began to become woozy, as their conscious' began to fade.

"What... why...?" Sapphire weakly said, before falling into slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CLIFF HANGER! Yeah, so this is going to a multi-parter, about two or three parts. And don't worry, they aren't dead. This isn't THAT kind of story. It's just sleeping gas (like that one scene in Sonic Adventure DX).
> 
> Anyway, this was something I was planning for this story for a while, even before Gemerl came back in the IDW comics. But thinking about what I wanted to do for this one, I decided to combine it with another I had, and I ended planning this as a multi-parter. As such, more characters are on the way, but I won't reveal them now.
> 
> So, yeah, I gave Sapphire her own Miles Electric (for now). This made sense to me that Tails would give her one, and in Sonic Lost World, there are multiples of these, seeing as they are used for video communication. The Miles Gear is an idea I came up with, and I decided to give it a nod here. It's simply a mini version of the device that gets its name from the old Sega Game Gear portable console (and I guess, given my recent interest in Hyperdimension, Nepgear's N-Gear could be a minor inspiration too). Though, interestingly, at the end of the Sonic movie, Tails is seen with what looks like a mini version of the Miles Electric, so there you go.
> 
> One more thing, I'm imagining Gemerl to be like how I drew him a while ago on my DeviantArt (where I go by Cobalt-Gemini), though it's not too obvious now. But it will be later, given that the design I made had a few more specific areas for his weaponry, and even a little more of it. So, please keep that in mind for the future parts of this story.
> 
> Here is my Gemerl piece that I mentioned:  
>   
> [Link to the image on my DeviantArt](https://www.deviantart.com/cobalt-gemini/art/Gemerl-Redesigned-Sonic-Advance-3-786734052)


	13. The Black Gem Case #2

When Sapphire woke up, she was lying on a couch, within a familiar room. As she got up, very groggy, she looked around and realized she was in Cream and Vanilla's living room. Her vision was blurry, and she had a hard time fully understanding any more detail, but once she rubbed her eyes, and her vision began to clear up, she found the least likely person she expected to see here.

"You're awake," a deep voice said. Taking a good look to make sure it was who she thought it was, she saw the black-furred hedgehog with his crimson eyes staring at her with their usual intensity, what also with a hint of worry.

Seeing she was alright, Shadow smiled. "Good to see that you're okay. Were you hurt?"

"I... don't think so..." Sapphire responded. "What happened? Why are you here?"

Shadow looked off to the side. "I found you and your friends knocked out on the ground, so brought you back here."

"Oh... is everyone okay?"

"Seemingly, although..." Shadow looked away. "Apparently, someone wasn't there."

"Wh-what?" Sapphire responded, nervous.

At that point, Vanilla walked in. "Oh, thank goodness, you're awake! Cream just got up, too." As if to prove it, Cream walked out from behind her mother, and ran up to Sapphire, very distressed.

"Saph! It's terrible!" she cried.

"H-huh?" the yellow hedgehog replied.

"Gem- Gemerl, he's..."

Shadow shook his head. "Based on what Vanilla told me, he was with you girls, but when I found you, I didn't see him anywhere."

"He's... gone...?" Sapphire said.

"Sapphire... What happened?" Vanilla asked.

Sapphire was distressed by this news, but she tried to explain what happened. How they were walking home, then someone used some kind of energy burst to shut down Gemerl, then followed with some sort of gas, which caused them to fall unconscious.

"An EMP," Shadow summed up, "plus some sleeping gas... Whoever did this, they knew what they were doing."

"I... I can't..." Sapphire started to tear up. "Tails trusted me with Gemerl, you trusted me with him, he... trusted..."

"It's okay, Sapphire, this wasn't you're fault," Vanilla replied, trying to comfort her.

Shadow got up. He was not happy that someone made Sapphire cry, even unintentionally. "Sapphire."

Sapphire looked over to the black hedgehog. "Y-yeah," she managed between tears and sniffles.

"Whoever did this, whoever thinks they can simply take your friends from you... I will find them, and I will make them pay! And I will bring Gemerl back, one way or another."

"My, aren't you determined," Vanilla replied. "But are you really going to do this alone?"

"If necessary. I work well when alone."

"Well, for something like this, you should ask for help. And I know who could help. Why don't you take Cream and Sapphire down, and ask for their assistance?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "You aren't talking about- ...No. I don't want help from them!"

* * *

"I can't believe we have to talk to these guys," Shadow grumbled.

The three mobians (plus Cheese) now stood in front of an old, run-down building in town. The sign on top read "Chaotix Detective Agency".

"You know these people?" Sapphire asked.

"I'm familiar with them," Shadow replied.

"Aw, they aren't that bad," Cream chimed in, with Cheese adding in with a "Chao Chao!"

Shadow gave a sigh. "Fine, I'll admit, they're helpful allies in the heat of things. But they are also a group of bumbling idiots, ...except for maybe Espio, and even then-"

"Give them a chance. They're good friends, and great detectives!"

"I don't know about great," Shadow mumbled.

Sapphire was very nervous. She hadn't even met these people yet, and she was already unsure if they would be helpful or not.

...But she still felt that she was responsible for Gemerl's disappearance. If these guys could help her find him, and her friends trusted them, then she would accept their help.

Sapphire took a deep breath, and said, "let's go." Then she went forward to enter the building, before Shadow and Cream could react.

Inside the building, she found herself in a waiting room, with a couple of short, potted palm trees and cushioned benches.

Within the room, she saw two mobians. One was a teenaged purple chameleon with yellow eyes, a yellow horn between his eyes, a heart-shaped area of bare chest, and was wearing metal-reinforces ninja gear. The other mobian was a child bee with amber-colored eyes wearing an orange vest with a bee symbol on it and a black, dark-pink-rimmed helmet with a pair of google on it.

The two of them were in a conversation, until the chameleon noticed the newcomer. "Hello there," he replied. "My name is Espio the Chameleon. Are you here looking for some assistance?"

"Y-yeah, you see I..." she started. "I need... um..."

"Hey, come on, we're not going to hurt you!" the bee chimed in, in response to Sapphire's nervousness.

"Charmy, calm down," Espio told the bee, "She seems nervous already, you're only making it worse."

"Oh, I-I'm okay," Sapphire said. "It's nice to meet you, Espio, Charmy."

At the moment, Shadow and Cream appeared from behind Sapphire.

"Oh, Shadow," Espio responded.

"Hey, Cream!" Charmy greeted his fellow kid.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Well, me and my friends need some help with something," Cream answered.

"And she believes you are the ones to ask," Shadow continued, with no enthusiasm in his voice.

"I see," Espio replied. "So, this is a friend of yours?" he asked, referring to the yellow hedgehog.

"Yes! This is Saph!" Cream exclaimed.

Shadow sighed, and added, "Sapphire the Hedgehog in full."

Sapphire merely smiled at her friends, still nervous about talking to these guys.

"Well, it is good to meet you, 'Saph'," Espio said. "So, what seems to be the problem.

"Um, a friend of mine is missing, and Cream says you can help us find him," Sapphire explained.

"Wait, so does that mean we got work?" Charmy said, before excitedly flying into another room, crashing through the doors. Espio gave a slightly exasperated expression, and then motioned for everyone to follow.

In the next room, they found a messy office, with a large, reptilian mobian with green scales, red spikey-scales going down to his tail, and gold-yellow eyes. The shoulders on his broad upper body had black shoulder pads on them, along with white gloves with large, black-and-orange cuffs with a gold buckle on them, black shoes with a little white and orange on them, and of course, a gold chain around his neck and a pair of wireless black-and-gray headphones. His entire attire made Sapphire think he was more of a DJ, rather than a detective.

"Charmy, what do you want!?" the detective angrily asked the bee.

"Vector! We've got work!" Charmy replied.

"WHAT!?" Then the detective looked up, and found his guests, along with Espio, watching him. He cleared his throat, and said, "Hello. Sorry about my associate here. He can get... a little wild."

"Th-that's okay," Sapphire replied nervously.

"So... Cream, Shadow. Strange to see you two together. Who's your friend?"

"Oh-oh, I'm Sapphire."

"Sapphire... hm, yeah I've heard of you. You're Sonic's friend, right?"

"Um, actually, I'm his sister. A-adopted! He adopted me!"

"Ah! That's good to know." The detective got up, and walked up to Sapphire, offering his... rather large hand in greeting. "My name's Vector, head of the Chaotix Detective Agency! And I bet you've met my friends and associates, Espio and Charmy."

"I have..." Sapphire replied, looking at the large mobian, still very nervous.

"Hey, no need to be nervous!" Vector replied. "I won't bite." Then he looked off to the side. "Okay, so maybe I've got a big mouth, but it's fine, really!"

Sapphire smiled and raised her hand, giving a return shake to him. "So... Vector. Does that mean you're an alligator?"

Vector gave a big, hearty laugh. "That would make sense, but no. I'm a crocodile. Vector the Crocodile," he explained.

"Oh. Sorry, I've... never met an alligator or a crocodile before, so I don't really know the differences between them."

"Ah, that's alright. People make that mistake all the time. Though, I have thought of the title 'Vector the Detector'."

"Which is DUMB and STUPID!" Charmy countered.

"Oh, come on!" Vector replied.

"I have to agree with Charmy, to a point," Espio added. "it is fairly... lame."

"You too!" Vector continued.

"Um, I kind of like it," Sapphire said.

"Yeah, we think it's cool!" Cream added.

Shadow gave no comment. Though he agreed with Espio and Charmy, he really didn't care.

"Thank you! I knew it would catch on!" Vector exclaimed. "So, what do you need!?"

"Well... you see... Cream and I, we were with Gemerl, bringing groceries back for Vanilla..." Sapphire explained.

"Okay, okay. Go on."

"And then, we were attacked. There was an EMP and sleeping gas... And when we woke up... Gemerl was gone..."

"And we don't know who took him," Cream added.

"I see," Vector replied, trying to seem professional and calm. However, someone was more than willing to disrupt him.

"WHAT! Someone took Gemerl!" Charmy blurted out. "But he's so much fun! Why would anyone-"

"Charmy! Please, calm down," Espio interrupted. "It's okay, we'll figure this out."

Vector sighed. "Still, this is distressing. Gemerl's been a big help in the past, and he's a good buddy, too. Whoever took him is going have to pay for the consequences." Vector then went silent, realizing something. "We're not going to get paid for this one, are we?"

Sapphire looked around nervously, while checking her jacket pockets. "I don't have any rings on me. Cream, do you?" she asked.

"No. Mama usually handles that kind of stuff," Cream answered.

Vector sighed again. "It's alright. You guys are friends, it's okay if this one's a freebie. Still..."

Shadow, recognizing the stress he was feeling, and how badly his friends wanted their help, decided to speak up. "Fine... As an agent of G.U.N., I get quite the hefty paycheck. But I don't care to use it. You help us, I'll give a month's worth of my salary in payment."

"How much?" Espio asked.

"Enough to pay your rent."

"You... really don't need to do this for us, Shadow," Vector replied.

"Says the greedy crocodile," Shadow said in return. "Ma... my friend here... wants your help, and I want to help her. Consider this compensation for staying out of my way if things get heated."

"Fair enough." Vector smiled. "Looks like we got our rent paid for! Now, let's this case started!"

"Yeah!" Charmy, Cream, and Cheese exclaimed (Cheese is with his "chao" speech), while Shadow and Espio remained stoic, but grinning, and Sapphire softly smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you," she said to all of them, and they all gave her big smiles in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, if you didn't figure it out already from the name, this is that basic detective mystery story. As I said last time, the idea with Gemerl and the idea of a mystery story were two separate ideas, but I decided to mix them together.
> 
> And of course, if it's Sonic and detective mystery, you got to have the Chaotix! They're the whole reason I wanted to do one. Sapphire is there, of course, being the main character and all. Cream's there because of Gemerl's disappearance (though that's Saph's problem, too). Shadow's here because I said I wanted to get him in here more, and he basically functions as the guy to voiced the common opinion of the Chaotix. Though Shadow did do stuff with the Chaotix in the last season of Sonic X, but that's not game cannon, so that doesn't matter to me.  
> I did sneak in a Sonic Boom reference in here with "Vector the Detector". Though really, why wasn't Vector an alligator? It rhythms! It makes so much sense.
> 
> Now, I'm not the biggest fan of mysteries outside of the occasional mini-plot like this one (literally, I couldn't get myself to read an Agatha Christie novel I was assigned for English class, and even told my teacher that I knew I'd get a bad grade for it, but I just couldn't do it). The short of it is, this probably won't be very good, nor very long.  
> However, at this point, what I was hoping would be two, maybe three parts, is looking to be more like four or five parts. I was actually going to continue on from this chapter's ending and start the case now, but it made more sense to end it here when looking at it.  
> This has basically become the story's first real story arc. And funnily enough, I was planning what was intended to be the actual first story arc to happen RIGHT after this. Guess that's just how it goes.


End file.
